


Glitter There, and Melt

by jamiewritesfanfic



Category: The Worst Witch (TV 2017)
Genre: Adventure, Established Relationship, F/F, Romance, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-01
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-09-05 04:54:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 31
Words: 20,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16804030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jamiewritesfanfic/pseuds/jamiewritesfanfic
Summary: “From a world composed, closed to us,Back to nowhere, the north.We needA cold primrose stingOf east wind; we needA harsh design of magic lights at night overDrab streets, tearsSalting our mouths, whether the east windBrought them or the jabbingOf memories and perceptions, who knows.Not history, but our own histories,A brutal dream drenched with our lives.Intemperate, open, illusory,To which we wake, sweating to makeSubstance of it, grip it, turnIts face to us, unwilling, and see theSnowflakes glitter there, and melt.” --Another Journey, Denise Levertov





	1. Chapter 1 (Prologue)

**Author's Note:**

> For the Worst Witch Winter Fluff Event! Thank you cassiopeiasara for proposing such a fun challenge! In fact, I ended up so inspired by this challenge that this somehow warped into a long, plotty adventure story. It has some fluffy moments, some hard moments, and ultimately a positive ending. So I hope that counts! 
> 
> I see this as being in the same world as my first story in this fandom, As Earth Itself, but you certainly don't need to read that first in order to understand this. Hope you enjoy - happy December, everybody! 
> 
> Day 1 Prompt: First Snowfall

Hecate woke suddenly in the middle of the night, drawing in a sharp breath through her nose. She searched her mind, looking for the dream that had startled her, but came up empty. 

Perhaps it was being in a new place. It wasn’t as if she never slept in Ada’s rooms, but each time she did, she needed to remind herself where she was at least once throughout the night. 

Beside her, Ada slept peacefully. If most nights were any indication, it would take an act of the divine to wake her. Hecate pushed herself up, careful not to disturb the bed as she stepped into her slippers. Even with a fire roaring, December always meant drafts in the castle. Her flannel nightshirt was hardly enough. She summoned Ada’s blanket - a fuzzy lavender throw - from the settee and wrapped it around herself, trying to move as silently as possible. 

When she reached the window, Hecate gasped. The first snow had begun to fall, giant snowflakes floating to the grounds like something from a storybook. 

She was torn - torn between the desire to wake Ada, to enjoy this moment with her, and the paralysis of memory that winter always stirred somewhere deep within her. 

Hecate heard a groan and whipped around, her hand out in front of her before she could think. “It’s just me,” Ada said, pulling herself up to a seat. Hecate dropped her hand, embarrassed. “Is everything alright?”

“Yes, of course,” Hecate said, then wondered if she’d answered too quickly. “It has started to snow.” 

“Oh,” Ada said, groping blindly at her night table to locate her glasses, as if a simple spell wouldn’t have done the trick. She rose quickly, padding over to the window in her bare feet. She looped an arm around Hecate’s waist, leaning against her shoulder. “It’s beautiful,” Ada said. “The first snowfall.” Ada’s voice was full of wonder, and it almost made Hecate forget the cold that seemed to be coursing through her veins. “I just love snow.” 

Hecate could have guessed that, but it was still quite endearing to hear spoken aloud. 

“Are you alright, Hecate?” Ada asked after a few moments of silence, of watching the snow, feeling like they were the only two people in the world. 

“Yes, Ada,” she answered. “Of course.” 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 2 Prompt: Lights

Her first term as Headmistress had been - Ada hesitated to think it had been peaceful, even in the confines of her own mind - but it had passed with nothing more than the usual incident. 

Miss Drill had made herself at home. Mavis Spellbody had been appointed Head Girl. Two first-years had somehow ended up on the roof. Hecate had lost her temper at a third-year whose transference spell had gone awry. 

Ada herself spent some of her days overwhelmed by all she needed to accomplish and others wondering what she was supposed to do all day without lessons to plan or papers to mark. 

Without warning (there never was), Hecate appeared in her office. “Miss Cackle,” she said, tripping over her words the way she always did when particularly enraged. “Margaret Meadow and Amethyst Crow, they’re…” she sputtered. It was almost comical, but Ada didn’t want to allow herself laughter. 

Something had been going on with Hecate lately - some sort of worry she was holding to herself, above the usual end-of-term stresses. Ada didn’t want to make it worse by not taking her complaints seriously. 

“What did they do?” Ada asked, trying to gently move the conversation along. 

“Their end-of-term potions projects were due today, and they  _ dared  _ to offer excuses instead of projects.” 

“What was their excuse?”

“They said they didn’t have time! What kind of excuse is ‘I didn’t have time’? It’s a boarding school. They have nothing but time.” 

Ada couldn’t disagree there, but it was clear that Hecate was in no place to manage this herself. “Send them to me,” Ada said. “There will be consequences for this.” 

“Thank you,” Hecate said, all of the fight visibly going out of her at once. “Ada, I...thank you.” 

* * *

The matter of the students sorted, Ada found Hecate again, where she was overseeing the decoration of the Great Hall. Ada knew immediately that this was a labor they would divide differently in the future. Miss Drill was raising lights onto the evergreen tree, a group of first-years seated beside her, making a chain out of loops of paper. 

The fairy lights Miss Drill was creating twinkled in pale blue spheres, each one like a tiny firefly. It was ethereal, and Ada knew the girls would be delighted when they arrived for breakfast in the morning. 

“When I was a young witch,” Hecate was saying, “We lit a single candle and a yule log. We did not engage in such frivolity.” 

Ada watched for a moment, though she knew she really should have stepped in. All of Hecate’s stories about her youth made her sound like a witch of one hundred years, not thirty. It was all very strange. 

“Oh, come off it, HB,” Drill said, and the first-years giggled momentarily until they were silenced by one of Hecate’s looks. “You look as if a ghost visited you in chains last night.” 

Hecate clearly didn’t get the reference. She never did. But she did look like she was about to bolt from the room. “Miss Hardbroom,” Ada said, wincing as Hecate visibly startled. “I have an update for you on the situation we discussed earlier. In my office, perhaps?”

“Yes, Headmistress,” Hecate said, her shoulders slumping as she followed Ada from the hall. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 3 Prompt: Mistletoe

“How did your students do on their exams?” Ada asked as she made herself at home in Hecate’s rooms for tea. 

Hecate looked up from her paperwork, spread across the coffee table, feeling entirely ungrounded and frantic. The last exam period had ended only a few short hours ago, and the marking seemed positively insurmountable. “I don’t yet know,” Hecate said. “I’ve marked the second year exams, and they ranged from abysmal to barely tolerable.” 

It must have been a mark of how used to such statements Ada was that she merely huffed out a laugh, rather than the lecture she would have given several years ago. “What can I do?” Ada asked. 

She had been asking that a lot lately, ever since that night of the first snow. Hecate always felt a little unsettled in the winter, but this one was unusual. She had thought that with Ada near, perhaps she wouldn’t… 

Hecate shook herself, accepting the cup of tea that Ada offered. “I suppose I could use assistance with the third-year exams.” 

“I’ll take the fill-in-blank section and you take the essays?” Ada asked. 

“That sounds agreeable. Thank you, Ada.” 

* * *

It took hours, but Hecate and Ada finished five piles of exams and three pots of tea. “I’m quite glad I made an herbal blend,” Ada said as Hecate averaged the exam scores into the term grades and made a list of final marks for the term. “Or we would be awake all night.” 

“Speak for yourself,” Hecate said, handing Ada the final grades. “I will likely fall asleep at any moment.” 

“In that case,” Ada said, “I will leave you to it.” She waved her hand in the air, materializing a small sprig of greenery which floated in the air beside her. 

“Mistletoe?” Hecate said, disbelieving. “Ada, I know you’re a romantic, but even you aren’t usually this...gauche.” 

“What about its other properties?” Ada asked, looking at Hecate intently over her glasses. “Mistletoe has long been used to…” she hesitated. “To ward off bad dreams.” 

Hecate started a little. Ada knew. She knew and she was trying to tell Hecate something. But what? Perhaps...perhaps just that she knew. 

“Alright, then,” Hecate said. “You may leave it. And I wouldn’t say no to a goodnight kiss.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 4 Prompt: Party

Ada had to practically stand over Miss Bat to collect her final grades for the term, but that being accomplished, she was ready to attend the traditional party that marked the beginning of winter holidays. 

She walked through the halls, dodging ringing bells, shouting students, and enchanted snowballs, making her way to Hecate’s room to collect her for the party. But when she arrived at Hecate’s door, she could tell before even knocking that Hecate was already engaged. 

“What is it, father?” Hecate was saying, apparently on a mirror call. She paused for a response that Ada wasn’t able to hear through the door. 

Ada still remembered the night that Hecate had returned in tears from a visit to her parents. That was the first and last time she had spoken of her family - there were no fond stories, no reminiscences, no mundane complaints. 

From that night, Ada could determine that Hecate’s parents were still alive and still together, and that they put a type of pressure on Hecate too heavy for her to bear. 

But she knew nothing else - not their names, their occupations, where they lived. “Where are you?” Hecate was saying. “Are you at the pub?”

Ada closed her eyes. She was not meant to hear this, but now that she had, she wasn’t sure what to do. 

It was better to let Hecate have her privacy, Ada decided. She crept away from the door, trying to think of a way to let Hecate know that she was free to take her time. 

* * *

Of course, Hecate materialized beside Ada the second that the party began and the girls started streaming into the Great Hall. 

Miss Bat was loudly playing a yuletide song on the organ and Ada had to practically shout to be heard. “Is everything alright, Hecate?” she asked. 

“Yes, Miss Cackle,” was the only response she was given - Hecate’s mind was clearly still on the conversation with her father. 

“We have the party well in hand. I appreciate your being here, but if you needed to attend to other matters…” 

Hecate looked at her sharply and Ada knew immediately that she had misstepped. “I am perfectly capable - ” Hecate started. 

“I know that,” Ada said. “My apologies.” 

Hecate actually shook herself, and they both turned back to the party where Miss Drill’s fairy lights and Miss Bat’s music filled the hall and groups of girls stood munching on popcorn balls and drinking wassail. “The girls leave tomorrow,” Hecate said. Ada could tell she was trying to smile, but it came out looking like a grimace. 

“Indeed they do. A holiday together,” she said, very aware that Hecate was making an effort and hoping to repair what she had damaged. “Can you imagine?”

Hecate smiled again, and this time, it almost looked real. 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 5 Prompt: Baking

“I’ve never...baked before,” Hecate said, feeling unsure what she was supposed to be doing as she stood beside Ada in the academy kitchen, early in the morning of the girls’ departure. 

“Cooking has to be much like brewing potions,” Ada responded. 

“Cooking is,” Hecate said as Ada tied an apron around her own waist, then held one up to Hecate in question. She shook her head. “I’ve cooked before, of course. But baking is another matter.” 

Ada took a minute to pull a massive mixing bowl out of one of the cupboards and turn the oven on to pre-heat. “I used to do this with my mother every winter,” she said. “It breaks my heart to think that for some of the girls, going home is not a pleasant experience. The least we can do is send them home with a warm cookie, to let them know we’re thinking about them, even when they’re away.” 

Hecate felt her heart clench almost painfully. She didn’t know quite what to say. 

“Now,” Ada said, and Hecate was grateful that she had turned her back, rustling around in the cupboards for ingredients. “What is your favorite cookie?”

Hecate had to think about it for a minute. “At Miss Amulet’s,” she finally said, her voice shaking slightly from an odd type of nerves, “We had one.” 

“Yes?”

“It was a sugar cookie, shaped like a snowflake, coated with a blue icing.” Hecate had never told anyone about that. She was surprised she even remembered, but there it was, in the front of her mind. 

“That sounds lovely,” Ada said. “Let’s make that.” 

* * *

Hecate was thankful for Ada’s explicit directions as they mixed the dough, her mind half in the kitchens with Ada and half on last night’s conversation with her father. “Hecate,” he had said, looking at her in that odd way he often did, as if just realizing she was a grown witch, no longer a small child. “Your mother’s off with that coven.” He spat the word out, as if a coven was something to be disgusted by. 

Hecate didn’t know whether to believe him. When Hecate was growing up, her mother would never even have considered a coven. “You are a powerful witch, Hecate,” her mother always said. “From a long line of powerful witches. Do not let anyone attempt to take your power, to use it for their own gain. Witches like us, we need to be careful.” 

Perhaps the drink was just addling her father’s senses. Perhaps his wife had just left him. 

Soon enough, Ada was sprinkling the counter with flour, rolling out the dough she had finished kneading. “How shall we do this?” she asked. 

“I could come up with a spell,” Hecate said. 

“Be my guest.” Ada smiled, clapping her hands together and sending flour flying throughout the room. 

Hecate needed to think for a moment. Spell construction was never quite her thing - she could picture what she wanted to happen and use magic to bend the universe to her will, but she had never been creative enough, uninhibited enough, to come up with a rhyme. But this, this seemed too...delicate a task, too important to Ada and the girls, to complete without speaking. Finally, she raised her hands, muttering, “As the girls fly from this place, may the glitter of snow be theirs to taste.” 

It wasn’t the best of rhymes, but Ada exclaimed, “How beautiful,” as the dough shaped itself into snowflakes, each one different from all the others. “It’s perfect, Hecate.” Ada cast her own spell, sending the cookies onto the trays and into the oven. 

* * *

“You have to try the first,” Ada said, holding an iced snowflake cookie in her hand as they sat at the counter, surrounded by hundreds of cookies. 

“If you try one with me,” Hecate answered, picking up one of her own. 

“Of course.” They tapped their cookies together in an imitation of a toast, and Hecate took a small bite. 

All of a sudden, Hecate felt like she was back at Miss Amulet’s, like she was twelve years old and staring down at her plate after the end-of-term feast, after a dinner of roast and potatoes and warmed cider. As if that hadn’t been enough, a cookie shaped like a giant snowflake had appeared before her, almost twinkling in the candlelight. 

“What do you think?” Ada asked. “As good as you remember?”

“Even better.” 


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 6 Prompt: Gifts

After the girls had flown away, off to their own holiday adventures, Ada convinced Hecate to come to the village with her, to find gifts to bring to the annual holiday dinner with Ada’s family. Hecate accompanied her on the long walk down the mountain, wrapped in her thick winter cloak. 

They ducked into a bookshop in the village’s small witching street, where Hecate stood beside Ada, pulling books off of the shelf and staring at them disdainfully as Ada attempted to find a mystery novel for her father. “ _ Murder at Pendle Hill _ ,” she read. “ _ Wizards of War and Peace.”  _

“He’s read both of those,” Ada said, inwardly delighting at the sigh she knew this would draw from Hecate. She was right. Hecate rolled her eyes dramatically. 

“How about  _ The Cauldron Boiled Black _ ?” Hecate held up a book as thick as one of the Cackle’s Academy spellbooks. 

“I don’t believe so,” Ada said, taking the book from Hecate and examining it. “This should keep him busy for a while.” 

* * *

The book purchased, they made their way to the jewelry shop to select earrings for Alma. This should be the easy part, she tried to tell herself. Her mother enjoyed any little bauble or trinket Ada selected for her each year, and jewelry was always her favorite gift. But selecting a gift for her mother led her to thoughts of the other she would need to buy. 

”What should I get Agatha?” she asked, hoping that Hecate somehow would have the perfect easy, inexpensive, painless answer. 

Hecate looked up from a rack of earrings, her eyes growing wide at the question. “How the hell should I know?” she said sharply, then seemed to realize what she’d done. “I’m sorry, Ada, I…” 

Ada couldn’t help it. She probably should have been offended by that strange outburst, but instead, she laughed. “Now you see what I’ve had to put up with for forty years.” 

Hecate gave her a little smile, relief spreading across her face as if she and Ada had not been together for half a year, as if she still needed to watch everything she said. Ada wanted to say something to reassure her, but she didn’t get a chance. “And what is it we will be pretending to believe about Agatha this year?” Hecate asked before Ada could say anything.  Ada couldn’t even express how grateful she was for the sarcasm in Hecate’s voice. Ada wouldn’t admit it, but Hecate’s disdain for Agatha was often the only thing that got her through a family dinner. “Has she been elected Great Wizard? Flown across the English Channel?”

“Both,” Ada said, picking up a pair of rose gold earrings, shaped like delicate orchids. She held them up to Hecate, raising her eyebrows in question. Hecate nodded. “I’m sure she’s also recorded a chanting album and cured vampirism. What do you get for the witch who’s done it all?”

Hecate laughed a little, twirling a rack of necklaces around absentmindedly. Ada could tell Hecate was distracted, only half with her. That conversation with her father had really left its impression, and Ada ached to ask what was wrong. Was he at the pub often? Did he have a problem with drink? Perhaps something had happened during the holidays when Hecate was a young girl, something that was still affecting her? 

“What about your family, Hecate?” Ada chanced. “Do you usually exchange gifts?”

“No,” was all Hecate said. 

“Alright,” Ada said, knowing she had lost the conversation. She grabbed a necklace at random and headed to the register. 


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 7 Prompt: Ice Skating

Hecate left the castle at dawn. She had a long flight ahead of her, and she didn’t want to worry Ada until she knew exactly what had happened with her mother. The winter wind was bitter, and it wasn’t until she was a good half-hour away from the castle that Hecate realized she had forgotten a warming potion. Her cloak and gloves would have to do. 

She touched down near her family home, tucked into an alleyway in a mill town that was all but forgotten. Though she could see the house at the end of the alley, Hecate didn’t bother approaching it. Her father wouldn’t be there anyway. 

The pub seemed empty at first, aside from an elderly bartender drying a pile of glasses with a dirty rag. “May I help you?” he asked, looking up from his work. 

“Yes, thank you,” Hecate said. “Jonas Hardbroom?”

“Aye,” the bartender said. “Is that Hecate?”

She nodded. 

“I thought so. My, how you’ve grown.” 

Hecate nodded again. She wasn’t sure what to say. She must know this man, but for the life of her, she couldn’t place him. There were no other witching families in town, and the Hardbrooms had always kept to themselves. 

Luckily, she was saved when the bartender pointed to a booth tucked away in the corner, so shrouded in shadow that she wouldn’t have been able to tell it was occupied. 

Her father was slumped over when she approached, both hands around a bottle. He was unshaven, with bloodshot eyes. But he still looked up as her heels clacked against the old wooden floor. 

“You know that Diana hates that expensive cloak,” he said in greeting as Hecate took a seat. 

She knew that. Hecate remembered asking her mother for a new winter coat, the holiday break before her second term at Miss Amulet’s. In her uniform, Hecate looked much like the other girls, but on the weekend...her threadbare cloak and old shoes were nothing like the shiny black boots and three-buttoned cloaks favored by her classmates. “Vanity is unbecoming in a witch,” her mother had said. Hecate at twelve years old had interpreted her mother’s tone, the look on her mother’s face, as anger. But Hecate at thirty recognized it as shame. 

Even now, she had an urge to insist that her winter cloak was not expensive, not frivolous. But that wasn’t true. It had cost the entirety of her first paycheck from Cackles, a gift to herself for all of the work it had taken to secure the position and in preparation for the cold winter ahead. She had pulled it on, each day every winter, and it still felt like a luxury every time. She didn’t say any of that, only “Where has Mother gone?”

“I told you, she’s off with that coven,” her father said. 

“Which coven?”

“How the hell should I know?” he asked, downing the rest of his beer. 

“What’s wrong with it?” Hecate said. 

“What’s wrong with it?” Jonas asked in return. “She goes off with the coven, she doesn’t return for months. The house is in shambles.” 

“This has been going on for months?” Hecate asked. 

“I told you that.” 

He hadn’t. She would have remembered that. Should she be concerned that her mother had been involved with this coven for so long? Or should she be relieved? Would finding companionship and the company of other witches help her mother’s unique mixture of superiority and isolation? Perhaps it was the best thing for everyone. 

But somehow it didn’t feel like that. Hecate looked out the bar’s grimy window, which overlooked a small local pond. The pond had frozen over, and little children in skates spun round and round without a care in the world. It was an entrancing sight. 

Hecate remembered asking her parents for skates one year, taken as she was with the little girls gliding gracefully across the ice, their hands in warm fuzzy mittens and their necks wrapped in knitted scarves. “A witch does not engage in such frivolity,” her mother had said, disappearing from the room before Hecate could say anything in response. She had received a spellbook as her gift, as always. 

“Father, perhaps you shouldn’t worry about it,” Hecate said, the words feeling empty as they left her mouth. 

He grunted in response. 

“Can I take you home?” she asked. “Get you settled in bed?”

“Nah,” he said. 

“Well then…” She rose from the table, feeling uncomfortable as she smoothed her hands over the front of her cloak. “Until next time.” 

Her father didn’t say anything. 

Hecate made her way from the pub, taking the long route back to her broom, past the children ice skating, twirling around in circles, their arms extended above their heads, reaching up toward the sky. 

She realized, when she arrived at her broom, that she didn’t have the energy for the flight back. She had to get home, now. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the comments, etc so far! Everyone in the US in the path of Winter Storm Diego, take care and stay safe!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 8 Prompt: Decorating

Ada danced about her chambers, trying to take her mind off of Hecate’s troubles as she decorated her rooms for the holidays. An old album of her father’s played on the phonograph as she adjusted the tree so that it stood in the perfect place in her sitting room, right beside the fireplace. 

Satisfied with the tree’s placement, she turned toward the task of adorning it, lifting the popcorn and cranberry garland by hand. For some reason, even old-fashioned Alma Cackle and Augustus Darkwood had insisted that the family decorate the tree together, without magic, every year. And now, over forty herself, Ada couldn’t even imagine tinkering with that tradition. 

There was a pounding at the door and Ada startled, the garland tumbling back to the floor. She rushed to open it, knowing who was bound to be on the other side. 

“Hecate,” Ada said, trying to keep the panic out of her voice as she opened the door. Hecate looked awful - pale and distant. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Hecate said. “I just completed a transference spell.” 

“Over quite a distance, I imagine.” 

Hecate just nodded, and Ada shepherded her over to the settee before the fire. Hecate seemed so cold lately - she was shivering, her arms folded across her chest, gripping herself with a strength that had to be painful. Ada wrapped Hecate in the lavender throw that had practically become hers, squeezing both her shoulders. “Sit here by the fire,” Ada said. “I’m going to fetch you something.” 

* * *

Ada decided to walk to the kitchens in order to buy herself a moment to think. It was time, she knew. Time to somehow convince Hecate to share whatever had been troubling her lately, whatever issue with her family was overtaking her ability to focus on anything else. 

Once she had finished her recipe, Ada transferred back into her rooms, finding Hecate exactly as she had left her, staring into the flames. “Something for you,” Ada said, pressing a steaming mug into Hecate’s hand. 

Hecate looked up as Ada sat beside her. “What is it?”

“An old Cackle recipe,” Ada replied. At Hecate’s incredulous face, she went on. “No, not one of my mother’s cocktails. It’s hot cocoa with lavender.”

Hecate made what Ada could only assume was an attempt at a smile and lifted the mug to her lips, taking a tentative sip. “Ada, I …” Hecate started. She gripped her mug tightly. 

“Whatever it is, Hecate,” Ada said, wrapping an arm around Hecate’s shoulders. “You can tell me. We’ll figure it out together.” 

Hecate took another long drink of her cocoa, then let out a deep sigh. “My mother has taken missing. She is apparently with her coven, but for some reason, I feel that…” 

“You feel that something is wrong?” Ada tried, and Hecate nodded. Ada knew she had been offered so much already. The last thing she wanted was to ask too much too soon and drive Hecate away. She thought for a moment about the right thing to say. “I always find that if I have a strong instinct, it’s best to trust it.” 

“I would like to go to their home,” Hecate finally said, looking at the fire, rather than directly at Ada. “To see if anything seems…” 

“That sounds like a good plan,” Ada responded, trying her best to sound supportive. 

“I would like…” Hecate said, and Ada hoped this was going where her instincts told her it was. “That is, would you…” she cleared her throat. “Will you come with me?”

“Oh, Hecate,” Ada said, willing away the tears that had sprung to her eyes. “Of course I will.” 

They sat in silence for a moment while Hecate drank her cocoa and Ada dried her eyes, feeling like she was able to breathe for the first time in days. Finally, she knew what was happening. Finally, they had a plan. 

“I hope I have not interrupted your evening,” Hecate said. 

“Not at all. I was decorating the tree.” Ada paused, looking at Hecate, who had a hopeful expression on her face that Ada tried to interpret. “Would you like to help me?”

Hecate looked down at her empty mug. “That would be nice.” 

“Wonderful,” Ada said, jumping up and pulling Hecate along with her. “But per Cackle tradition, you have to do it by hand.” 

Hecate drew a hand to her chest in mock offense, but said, “I think I can live with that.” 


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 9 Prompt: Frozen. Perfect for a day when I woke up to a foot of snow!

They landed at the Hardbroom house late the next morning, moving through a blanket of snow that looked to be untouched. Her mother must not have returned, Hecate reasoned. Her father either. 

Hecate watched Ada for a moment. This could not have been what Ada was expecting. From the conversations she’d had since her university days, Hecate knew most people assumed she had grown up in a large estate, or a lakeside manor. Austere, perhaps, but not…

Hecate took a deep breath. Ada wouldn’t say anything - she was too kind. But Hecate knew what Ada was thinking. This wasn’t a manor. This wasn’t even really a house. 

“Lead the way,” Ada whispered, placing her hand delicately on Hecate’s arm. Hecate pushed the door open, ducking under the doorway, her boots scratching on the dirt floor. 

The entryway, if it could be called that, appeared to be frozen over. The entire wall was still covered with the family tree, rendered difficult to read by a thin coating of frost. “Hardbroom,” it read in her mother’s hand. “Gravitas, Pudicitiam, Imperium.” 

Hecate felt like the ice were inside her. Ada took her hand. “It appears the ice is everywhere,” Ada said, bringing Hecate back to reality. “It’s likely the house is uninhabited. Shall we continue our search?”

* * *

“Was this your room?” Ada asked, moving into the smallest of the three rooms, less than each girl at Cackle’s inhabited during term time. 

“Yes,” was all Hecate could bring herself to say.

Ada gave her a soft smile. “I can picture it. You, sitting on this bed, studying your spellbooks. I’m sure you were quite the clever young witch.” 

Hecate knew she was being offered a gift, but embarrassment crept through her, preventing her from speaking. 

Luckily, Ada didn’t press the point, instead changing the subject with, “Does anything in here look amiss?” 

“No,” Hecate said, taking in the tiny bed, the dirt floor, all covered in a thin coating of ice. The house had always been cold in the winter, but... “Perhaps we should try my parents’ room?”

“Of course.” 

* * *

Hecate gasped when she entered, trying not to slip on the ice as she lowered herself to the floor. Beside her parents’ bed was a cauldron, with a collection of partially-used ingredients scattered around it in a haphazard pattern. 

Hecate barely registered Ada sitting beside her, until Ada whispered, “A cauldron? But it doesn’t look like any cauldron I’ve ever seen.” 

“That’s because it’s made out of clay,” Hecate said. “Clay cauldrons haven’t been used for…” she thought back to her university days, to the potions witchory classes she had taken her first year. “For centuries. Witches used to believe that a clay cauldron would keep the spell from being corrupted, from the potion bearing the magical imprint of the witches who have touched the cauldron before.” If that didn’t sound like her mother, Hecate didn’t know what would. 

“Used to believe?” Ada asked. 

“It was debunked in the eighteenth century,” Hecate responded absently. She picked up the cauldron - it was frozen, of course, as everything was, but that wasn’t what caught her eye. “There’s a symbol.” It was so small as to be hardly noticeable, but there it was - a tiny etched triangle at the lip of the cauldron. “I don’t know what it means.” 

“Neither do I,” Ada said. “What about the ingredients? Do you recognize them?”

“Individually, yes,” Hecate said, taking them all into account, running through their uses and properties in her mind. Tilia root, wolf’s foot, agrimony, yew, snakeskin - nothing she hadn’t seen before. “But I’ve never seen them all used together.” 

Hecate sighed, placing the cauldron back on the ground. Her mother was involved with something, that was certain. Coven or not, this was a strange situation. But it was also a dead end. She didn’t know what her mother was supposedly brewing or why, and she didn’t have the first idea how to figure it out. 

“Hecate, you may not like this,” Ada said. “But I’ve an idea how to proceed.” 


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 10: Meeting the Parents

Her mother was trying, Ada reminded herself as she sat in her usual place at family dinner - between Hecate and her mother, across from Agatha. Trying to be welcoming toward Hecate, to make her feel included in the family. As grateful as she was trying to be, Ada was still annoyed at how awkward and stiff both her parents were being this year. 

And Agatha’s new beau was hardly helping matters. Agatha and Chadwick had arrived barely an hour ago, and Ada already felt like the air itself had changed. 

“Well, I’ve had several offers on my potions, but none of them were worth taking. I’d rather be able to experiment and plan my own time, not be tied down by a lab or a professorship,” Agatha said, throwing back a whiskey concoction her mother had taken to calling a Boil and Bubble. 

Chadwick hadn’t said a word in the last hour, but Augustus somehow still seemed impressed by him. Ada wanted to tear her hair out, and Hecate was sitting up too straight in her chair, sipping at her tea. She was uncomfortable every year at this dinner, Ada knew. But this year, with the developments in their relationship, Ada could tell Hecate was putting even more pressure on herself to make a good impression. As if Hecate needed anything else to worry about. 

If it weren’t for the fact that they needed to discuss Hecate’s family situation with Alma, Ada would have been tempted to jump on her broom and fly back to the academy. 

Ada looked across the table at Miss Bat, who was busy rolling her eyes dramatically at Agatha’s story. Well, at least there was one bright spot. 

* * *

The dinner over and plates cleared, Augustus decided to give Chadwick a tour of the gardens, and Agatha invited herself along, while Miss Bat made her excuses and disappeared off to bed. 

It was the perfect opportunity. Ada put on a pot of tea and arranged a tray in the kitchen, the most comfortable room in Darkwood Cottage. “Mother,” she called into the other room, waiting for Alma to appear. “Hecate and I would like to speak with you.” 

She saw the moment Alma tensed up, then quickly schooled her features into something more pleasant. Ada reminded herself to focus - they needed to find out where Hecate’s mother had gotten off to. 

The three witches seated themselves around the rough hewn wooden table by the hearthside, and Ada poured everyone a cup of tea. “We were hoping,” Ada said, glancing over at Hecate, who gripped her teacup with a vice-like strength. “That you could help us identify a symbol.” She nodded over at Hecate, who released her cup long enough to wave her hand over the table, causing the clay cauldron to appear. 

Hecate pointed one long nail at the little triangle, and Alma gasped loudly. “Where did you get this?” Alma demanded. 

Ada looked at Hecate for permission. She nodded, almost imperceptibly. “It was at Hecate’s family home. Her mother is…” Ada wasn’t sure if she had the permission to continue. 

“My mother is apparently with a coven,” Hecate finished. 

“Oh, Hecate,” Alma said. “I don’t know how to tell you this.” 

“Just tell me,” Hecate said. Ada wanted to reach for her, but she didn’t know if Hecate would appreciate the gesture in front of Alma. 

“This symbol, on a clay cauldron...It has to be the Eternal Cast.” Alma said it with such gravity that she probably expected some kind of reaction from Ada and Hecate. 

“What is that?” Ada asked. 

“It’s a coven. They call themselves The Eternal Cast. But everyone else calls them The Vicious Circle. Hecate, how long has your mother been involved with this coven?”

“I didn’t know she was,” Hecate said, looking down at her hands in obvious shame. 

To hell with it. Ada reached over, laying her hand over Hecate’s. Alma clearly noticed and quickly averted her eyes. Ada didn’t know if it was from discomfort or to give them a moment of privacy. 

“What is it about this coven?” Ada asked. “Why do they have this reputation?”

Alma took a deep breath, sighing loudly. “They practice Dead Reckoning.” 

Ada felt like all of the breath had been stolen from her lungs. “I thought that was a myth.” 

“What is it?” Hecate asked, and Ada could feel her starting to tremble. “What is Dead Reckoning?”

“It’s a type of magical lineage,” Alma said. “A practice to unite a coven for eternity, so that the witches never truly die. When the founder member nears death, she gifts her powers to the next founder member. They’ve been practicing it for centuries, which means…” 

“That the founder member is the most powerful witch in the world,” Hecate whispered. 

“Yes,” Alma said. “With generations of compounded power in one witch, she is all but unstoppable.” 

They all fell silent, the weight of these revelations sitting heavily in the air. Ada squeezed Hecate’s shaking hand. 

“Hecate I’m begging you,” Alma finally said. “Do not get involved with these witches. I know it’s your mother, but please...please stay away.” 

“Mrs. Cackle - ” Hecate started. 

“Hecate, I’m not asking as your former headmistress. I’m asking as...as a mother. Please stay away.” 


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 11: Huddling/Snuggling for Warmth

According to Ada, Darkwood had been cold since she was a child. But even with the advance warning to pack warm nightclothes, Hecate still felt a chill. 

She hadn’t brought a potion and didn’t have the ingredients for a warming spell. But it was just as well as Ada lit the fire in one of the guest bedrooms and pulled back the handmade quilt, gesturing for Hecate to join her. 

This was the first time, Hecate realized as she settled her head against Ada’s shoulder, that she had spent the night with Ada without...well. As silly as it was, it still felt like a milestone. She didn’t know how to say that, so instead, she said, “I’m surprised your mother put us in the same room.” 

“She could hardly say no, could she?” Ada whispered. “Not when Agatha and Chadwick chose to stay together.” 

“What is the story with Chadwick?” Hecate asked, grateful for the distraction. They hadn’t discussed their trip to Hecate’s childhood home, aside from making their plans to uncover her mother’s whereabouts. If Ada had been surprised to learn that Hecate had grown up in a tiny shack in an alleyway around ordinary folk, she didn’t say anything. Hecate was glad - she didn’t know what she would say about it. “Does he speak?”

“I’m truly not sure.” Ada wrapped Hecate in her arms, stroking her shoulder tenderly for a moment before continuing. “What do you plan to do, Hecate?” she asked. “About your mother?”

“You heard your mother’s warning,” Hecate said. 

“I did.” Hecate could feel Ada’s wry little smile. “But I didn’t think you had any intention of heeding it.” 

She didn’t, that was true. But she also wasn’t sure if she should admit that to Ada, or if Ada would regard ignoring Alma’s warning as rejecting the entire family. “I hadn’t decided,” she said. 

Ada’s chest rose and fell with a laugh. “If it were my mother, I wouldn’t be able to stay away. I’m worried, Hecate, of course I am, but...but I understand.” 

Hecate nestled closer, feeling Ada’s warmth starting to uncoil the chill that seemed a part of her very being. “Perhaps I will make a plan in the morning,” Hecate settled on. 

“That sounds like a good idea, darling.” 

* * *

Hecate woke suddenly in the middle of the night from another of her dreams. The usual chill that she associated with winters of her childhood had combined with the frozen Hardbroom family home in her mind. She had been twelve years old, sitting on her frosted bed in her frozen bedroom, wishing against everything to be back at Miss Amulet’s. 

She realized too late that her shivering had jolted Ada, who held her more closely, murmuring “It’s alright,” in a voice heavy with sleep. 

“Sorry,” Hecate muttered, her mind still reeling from the dream. She immediately felt guilty, not only for waking Ada but for the dream (the memory, really) of wanting to be away from her home, in the warmth and safety of Miss Amulet’s. 

“No apologies needed.” Hecate only half heard Ada’s reassurance. Her mind was too busy, knowing she had stumbled onto something. 

“Ada,” she said, now wide awake. “I have an idea.”    
  



	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 12: Remote cabin/inn

They set out from Darkwood a few days later. Hecate hadn’t slept the rest of the night that she had woken from whatever dream had haunted her. She rose before the dawn, scribbling out a letter and borrowing Augustus’ old post owl to send it. 

“Hecate,” Ada had said, trying to keep the warning out of her voice, as they watched the owl take flight. “You aren’t trying to reach out to the coven, are you?”

“No,” Hecate had said definitively. “I’m writing to someone who will know how to find them.” 

And so Ada flew beside Hecate as they headed toward Miss Amulet’s winter cabin. Part of Ada wondered at how easily Miss Amulet had agreed to let them gatecrash her winter holiday. But another part understood - she would do near anything to help her students, present and past. 

They landed at the kind of place Ada often fantasized about owning. It was a small cabin, tucked away in the countryside, covered in a blanket of snow. “Oh, how lovely,” Ada found herself exclaiming. 

Hecate was, as usual, a few steps ahead of Ada, making her way purposefully toward the door. Ada tore her gaze away from the snow covered pines to follow, arriving beside Hecate as the cabin door swung open, framing Miss Amulet in front of the glowing yellow light of an oil lamp.

“Hecate Hardbroom,” Miss Amulet greeted, her voice full of a warmth that nearly made Ada’s heart melt. She turned toward Ada. “And you must be one of the Cackle sisters,” Miss Amulet said, looking Ada up and down. Ada knew what she was worried about. 

“I am. Ada Cackle. Well met.” 

That did the trick. Miss Amulet’s face softened, and she raised a hand in greeting. “Well, come in, come in.” 

* * *

“Thank you, Miss Amulet,” Hecate said in a rush as they removed their cloaks and Miss Amulet ushered them inside to sit by the fire. “For seeing us on such short notice. I do hope we’re not intruding upon your holiday.” 

“Hecate, I am retired. There is nothing for you to intrude upon. Please do not think any more of it. And I am no longer your headmistress. Please call me Altheda.” 

Hecate smiled and looked down, and Ada knew she’d never bring herself to actually do it. 

“Hecate, I’d heard you were at Cackle’s now,” Altheda went on. “But Deputy Headmistress. That’s incredible.” Ada could tell Hecate was both pleased and embarrassed, and luckily, Altheda continued. “Now, what can I help with?”

Hecate took a deep breath. “We believe that my mother is involved with the Eternal Cast,” Hecate said. She summoned the cauldron and placed it before them on the table. 

“Your mother?” Altheda said, narrowing her eyes. Ada recognized that face - there were many Cackle’s parents she regarded with the same disdain. 

Hecate nodded, and Ada asked, “Are you familiar with this coven?”

“Indeed. I included them in my research.” 

“Your research?”

Hecate turned to Ada. “Miss Amulet’s research since her retirement has been into the culture of various covens, their philosophies and practices.” 

“Hecate, I’m honored you’ve found the time to keep up with it,” Altheda said as she rummaged around on a bookshelf, pulling off one file folder after another and flipping it open. “My hope is that someday it will become a book, but for now, it’s only been an odd article here and there. Ah,” she said. “The Eternal Cast. Here we are.” She handed Hecate the file. “But I have to warn you, Hecate. This research is speculative at best. Finding a primary source, let alone an interview....it’s quite near impossible.” 

* * *

“What is it the Eternal Cast does?” Ada asked, after they had settled in, drinking cups of tea by the fire. Hecate was sprawled out on the floor, papers spread around her, and Ada sat in an armchair opposite Altheda, trying to catch a glimpse of the research over Hecate’s shoulder. “We know about the Dead Reckoning, but how do they use all of that power?” 

“It’s hard to prove,” Altheda said. “But rumor is that they use it to influence witching affairs. They were implicated in the death of Great Wizard Marcus Exeter in 1899, and in the 50’s, a group of witches disappeared after a member of their coven was reputed to publicly expose another witch. There’s hardly anything that goes wrong in our world that someone doesn’t blame on the Vicious Circle. But they’ve never been brought on charges, so we can’t know for sure.” 

“Hmm,” was all Ada could say. What was there to say about a coven that was by all accounts evil, but nearly invisible? 

“It says here…” Hecate sat up, holding one of the papers in front of her. “That they’re found at the end of the world, in the north.” 

“What does that mean?” Ada asked. 

“No one knows,” answered Altheda. “All we have is one fragment of a poem, attributed to the coven’s founder. I assume it means the coven operates literally to the north, but that may not be the case.” 

“Hmm,” Hecate said, turning back to her reading. Ada settled further in her chair. This wasn’t going to be as simple as she’d hoped.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 13: Sledding

Hecate looked up from her research as Ada and Miss Amulet fixed dinner. In the tiny cabin, all of the rooms adjoined each other, giving her an open view of the other two witches as they sliced carrots and potatoes for a stew. She hadn’t seen Miss Amulet in years, but she found herself in a memory of her first real conversation with her headmistress, the winter of her first term at the academy. 

_ Hecate sat in front of Miss Amulet’s desk, kicking her legs back and forth in nerves. She didn’t know why she had been sent to Miss Amulet’s office, why her form mistress had mysteriously brought her here, depositing her in front of the headmistress, where she waited as Miss Amulet finished writing a letter.  _

_ Miss Amulet was beautiful. She wore her hair in hundreds of little braids looped together in a bun at the base of her neck. In the summer, she wore chiffon dresses; in the winter, lucious wool coats.  _

_ “Hecate,” Miss Amulet said. “I know you are trying, but your performance has been…” she trailed off and took a deep breath. “If you wish to maintain this scholarship - ” _

_ “Scholarship?” Hecate asked.  _

_ Miss Amulet regarded her strangely. “You’re coming to this school free of charge, Hecate. The only condition is that your marks are satisfactory.”  _

_ Hecate couldn’t stop herself - she was wheezing and crying, loud sobs wracking her shoulders before she even noticed that she was upset. “That isn’t true,” she sobbed, knowing how upset her mother would be. The night before Hecate left for the academy, her father had told her how much money the Hardbrooms were paying for her education.  _

_ “It’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Miss Amulet said kindly, holding out a woven green handkerchief. “In fact, it’s quite the honor.”  _

_ “But I don’t know why I’m doing bad.” Hecate was embarrassed, but she couldn’t stop herself continuing. “My mother says the Hardbrooms are the most powerful witches in the world.”  _

_ Miss Amulet didn’t say anything for a long time. “May I tell you a secret, Hecate?” Hecate noticed the way she rolled the ‘r’ in ‘secret,’ and she knew she would listen to anything Miss Amulet had to say.  _

_ She nodded.  _

_ “There’s no such thing as a naturally powerful witch. Only a witch who works as hard as she can at everything she does.” Miss Amulet waited while Hecate cleaned her face with the handkerchief, until her sniffles had stopped. “Now,” Miss Amulet said. “Why don’t you join the other girls? It looks like they’re…” She stood and opened a window, looking out over the grounds. “Sledding,” she finished.  _

_ The refrains of a song floated in through the window. “One little speckled frog, sat on a speckled log, eating some most delicious bugs.”  _

_ “Great,” Miss Amulet said. “Now that song will be banging about in my head all day.” She turned back to Hecate. “Unless you’d rather stay in.”  _

_ “No, Miss Amulet,” Hecate said. “I think I will go sledding.”  _

* * *

Hecate knew that Miss Amulet was the Headmistress of her academy, not the chef, but the stew somehow reminded her of the dinners at Amulet’s, the hearty winter meals that had so warmed her as a child. 

“Miss Amulet,” Hecate said, ignoring the glare she drew from her inability to address her former teacher by her given name. “How old is the Eternal Cast?”

“By all accounts, it was founded in the fifteenth century,” Miss Amulet said, holding out a basket of bread and waiting for Hecate to take a slice. “By a witch named Evangeline Waters.” 

“So she was the first founder member,” Ada said. 

“And has the line of power been…” Hecate searched for the right word. “Uninterrupted since that time?” 

Miss Amulet sighed. “Unfortunately, Hecate, I believe that is the case.” 

* * *

“We can’t thank you enough for your hospitality, Altheda,” Ada said as dinner drew to a close. “And your help.”

“Indeed,” Hecate said. “We will not intrude on any more of your - ” 

“Please don’t attempt to fly in the dark,” Miss Amulet interrupted. “Please stay the night.” 

“We couldn’t possibly - ” Hecate started. 

“I insist. I only have one spare room, but…” She glanced between Hecate and Ada. Hecate’s face warmed so abruptly she knew it had to be obvious. “But that won’t be a problem, will it?” 


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 14: Ugly/silly holiday clothing

Ada woke early the next morning, but it seemed that Hecate had woken earlier. With how Hecate had been acting lately, that was no surprise. 

Ada watched as Hecate sat in the middle of the floor, surrounded by papers, scribbling at something in a notebook. “She hasn’t changed at all, has she?” Ada jumped as she realized Altheda was right behind her, holding out a steaming mug, which Ada took gratefully. “This is a familiar scene.” 

“Yes it is,” Ada agreed. She took a sip of the coffee and shuddered - it was the strongest she had ever tasted. 

“I’m glad Hecate has found someone so kind.” This wasn’t the first time that someone had commented upon Ada’s kindness, but usually such observations were followed either by an implication that kindness undermined her ability to lead or surprise that she could hold any level of power within her spellcasting. 

“I try my best,” was all Ada could say. 

“I’m sure you’ve gathered by now that Hecate’s childhood was less than ideal.” 

“Yes, I’m beginning to see that,” Ada said. Part of her felt an odd sense of irritation that Altheda knew more about Hecate’s childhood than Ada herself did. But then again, Ada knew about the childhoods of hundreds of witches. There were some things only a teacher could see. 

“I don’t want to tell her what to do,” Altheda went on. “She is, after all, a grown witch, and I believe in the value of family as much as the next person. But...her mother will not want to be found. Not by anyone, not even her only child. I know the Hardbrooms had their difficulties, as many families do, but...I always got the sense that Diana cared more for her reputation, her power, than she did for anything else. She was convinced that the Hardbrooms were an illustrious line, the most powerful witches in the world.” 

“Was there any truth to it?” Ada asked. 

“There may have been, at some point. But not in recent history. I don't know what the situation is exactly. Whether the Hardbrooms consider themselves too talented and powerful for regular work, or whether it's easier for a struggling family to say that they are being persecuted for their superiority than that our world is simply unjust and inequitable.” 

It was true. Their world was often unkind and unfair. Ada didn’t know what to say in response. 

As it was, she didn’t have to say anything. Hecate looked up from her research, regarding Altheda as if she’d never seen her before. “Good morning, Hecate,” Altheda chuckled. 

“Good...good morning.” 

Ada didn’t know what she was suddenly on about, until Altheda said. “What is the use of retirement if I cannot wear whatever I choose?”

Ada looked over at Altheda, realizing for the first time that she wore trousers and an oversized jumper knitted with snowflakes that twinkled in the morning light. She couldn’t help but smile. She had seen Hecate’s face on many of their own students, the first time they saw Hecate with her hair down. 

“Take a break, Hecate,” Altheda said, and Ada smiled at the headmistress tone. “Come have coffee.” 

* * *

As always, Hecate struggled to take a break. She had taken barely a sip of her coffee and eaten one bite of a biscuit when she asked, “Who is the current founder member, Miss Amulet?”

“I'm unsure,” Altheda said, munching on her own biscuit, looking out the kitchen window at the snow.

They were silent for a moment. 

“I don’t know what I’m to make of the cauldron,” Hecate continued. “Or these ingredients.” 

“I assume that the clay cauldron means the Eternal Cast still believes in the corruptibility of metal,” Altheda said. 

“I figured the same. But I don’t recognize the ingredients themselves, and I don’t know why my mother had them, or the cauldron.” 

“From my research, it appears that the coven will have one potioneer, a witch responsible for all of the complex brewing that their particular brand of magic requires. My guess is that your mother is that witch.” 

Hecate nodded, and Ada turned that over in her mind. Was Hecate’s mother gifted at potions? Had she studied them herself - was that why Hecate had pursued a career in that field? Even after all of the revelations of the last several days, there was still so much she didn’t know. 

“As for the potion itself,” Altheda said. “You’ll have to go back to your university days and reverse engineer it. Work out the nature of the potion itself from the ingredients.” 


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 15: Free/Make-Up Day. So I went with a super sexy topic ... research!

Hecate wandered the halls, back at Cackle’s Academy. They had arrived at the castle in the early evening, and between unpacking and making dinner, they hadn’t had much time for research. 

But Hecate rose with the dawn, as she was accustomed to lately, leaving Ada in bed to make her way through the academy in the blue light of early morning. 

It wasn’t possible to brew the potion, she thought as she approached the library. Even if she had known the proportions of each of the ingredients, and even if she could be sure there weren’t any that her mother had simply used up, the key component of a spell as powerful as this was intention. Without the incantation, the potion would likely do nothing. 

So she would have to do what her potions professors at Weirdsister required every term during final exams. She would have to analyze the properties of the ingredients themselves and work out how they might all interact with each other. It was more an art than a science, and this coven could have access to ideas that had been unpopular for centuries. 

Hecate had been working on building a personal library since her university days, but still, there were some things one could only find at an academy.

The library was quiet, of course - while the staff would come and go throughout the holidays, none of them would spend their time on research. Hecate summoned the file that Miss Amulet had allowed them to take back to Cackle’s. “What I am going to do with it, Hecate?” she had said. “Write an article for an obscure journal? Your mother’s fate is much more important.” 

She set the file and her notebook on one of the work tables, then slipped into the shelves, looking for any potions text she could find. 

* * *

Hecate was surrounded by a veritable mountain of textbooks when Ada arrived, still in her dressing gown. “I thought I might find you here,” Ada said in greeting. “Any luck with the ingredients?”

Hecate looked down at her list - tilia root, wolf’s foot, agrimony, yew, snakeskin - and the properties she had been able to find in the last several hours. “Not in particular,” she said. “Tilia root is protective in nature, according to my own experience and everything I can find.” She sighed in frustration. “But that doesn’t help in the slightest. They could be seeking protection from the consequences of any spell they are planning to cast.” 

“What about the wolf’s foot?” Ada asked. 

“That’s a difficult one. On a practical level, clubmoss reacts well with fire, so many witches use it simply to create a spectacle.” 

“Which I would not put past this coven,” Ada said. 

“Exactly.” Hecate looked back at her notes. “It’s also associated with pain relief and improved memory.” 

“That’s not what I was expecting.” 

Hecate had to agree. “Nor was I. But it relates to the agrimony, which has long been considered a general healing agent. Agrimony also promotes oneness and group unity.” 

“I suppose that fits…” Ada said, though the expression she wore said otherwise. “If it’s a coven ritual, it will require teamwork.” 

“That’s true,” Hecate said, looking back at her notebook. “And that’s as far as I’ve gotten, I’m afraid.” 

“Well,” Ada said, running her fingers over one of the oldest texts. “How about I make us breakfast, then I’ll help with the research?”

“You don’t have to - ” Hecate started, but Ada raised a hand to cut her off. 

“I insist. It will be just like being back at University.” 

Hecate watched as Ada left the library, headed toward the kitchens. And despite everything - her confusion, her fear, the odd sense of cold she could not rid herself from - she smiled. 


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 16: Building Snowcastles

Later in the morning, Hecate had grown frustrated of both the library and her research into the potions ingredients. Ada was starting to be concerned - when Hecate got to the explosion point in her anger, there was often no turning back. After trying and failing to get Hecate to leave the castle, explore the grounds, or go into the village, she had finally settled on a compromise. 

Back in Ada’s rooms, papers spread out on the floor, they turned their attention to the poem supposedly composed by Evangeline Waters, the founder of the Eternal Cast. 

Ada searched the file, finally locating the poem. “Is this a translation?” she asked. 

“Yes.” 

“Where is the original?”

Hecate searched through the file for a moment, extracting the parchment and handing it to Ada. “It’s in Middle English,” she said. 

“Yes, I figured as much,” Ada said, summoning her clipboard and pen. 

“You read Middle English?” Hecate asked, giving Ada the kind of look Ada had been giving her lately - one that communicated her surprise in how much there was to learn about someone she knew so well. 

“Indeed,” Ada said, smiling to indicate she hadn’t expected Hecate to know. “It was a requirement for my Spell Science degree at Oxford Spellcaster’s College. Along with Latin, of course.” 

“Of course.” 

Ada looked over the Middle English, then back at the translation. “A modern translator took her name to be Evangeline Waters, but a better translation would be Evangeline of the Water.” 

“The coast, perhaps?” Hecate asked. “Or an island?”

“That’s quite possible,” Ada said. 

“Are there any other differences?” Hecate asked, her tone suddenly quite insistent. “Between the translation we have and your translation?”

Ada handed Hecate the translation, then took a moment to read and re-read the original, attempting to put the modern translator’s words out of her mind: 

_ “I, Evangeline of the Water  _

_ Seek the truth  _

_ At the end of the earth _

_ The furthest of the North Isles.  _

_ Here the cold shall purify me  _

_ And preserve my magic for eternity.”  _

“Wait,” Hecate said, scrambling for the poem’s translation. “This says ‘far north on this isle,’ which could be anywhere in the northern part of the country. But the furthest of the North Isles…” 

Ada sensed where she was going, an odd feeling of excitement and relief washing over her. “Is a real place.” 

Hecate let out a loud sigh of relief. “We know where they are,” she said, voice laced with wonder. “Now we just need to figure out what they’re doing.”

They were interrupted by a ringing sound from the mirror. Ada glanced over to see a picture of Darkwood Cottage, indicated a call from her parents. Ada knew it would be Alma, checking to make sure Hecate wasn’t doing exactly what she was doing at this very moment. 

Hecate let out a little squeak and disappeared, taking all of the paperwork with her. Ada sighed and rose to answer the mirror. 

* * *

She was still there, seated at the desk, staring into the mirror, when Hecate transferred back in. “I do hope I’m not interrupting, Ada,” Hecate said. 

Ada felt as if her entire body was heavy, like she was sinking into a deep water. “Hmm?” was all she could bring herself to say. 

“What is it?” Hecate asked. “Is something wrong?”

“No,” Ada said, then just a moment later, “Yes.” She forced herself to breathe, to turn around and look at Hecate, telling herself how foolish she was being for getting herself all worked up. “It was Agatha. Well, my mother and Agatha. Apparently, Chadwick has asked my father for Agatha’s hand in marriage.” Now that she was talking, Ada found herself unable to stop. “She actually said that, Hecate. She said ‘Chadwick has asked Father for my hand in marriage.’ Can you imagine?”

“How ridiculously old fashioned,” Hecate said. 

“That does mean a lot, doesn’t it?” Ada said, trying to smile. “Coming from you.” 

“This is Chadwick we’re speaking of?” Hecate said, her voice full of its usual Agatha-invoked disdain. “Chadwick who doesn’t speak?”

“That’s the one,” Ada said. “And my mother is thrilled, of course. She pretends to despair for Agatha, but she spends every one of her waking hours thinking about Agatha, talking to Agatha, telling me what great accomplishment Agatha has achieved lately.” She could hear the bile in her own voice, and she knew it was cruel and petty; it wasn’t like her. “And this...of course, Agatha has to go and do this, to get mother’s hopes up for…” she couldn’t finish. She laid her head in her hands and let out a loud groan. 

“Come,” Hecate said. “Let’s not sit around here and mope over this all day. It will never last anyway.” She stood by the desk, tapping her toe impatiently until Ada got to her feet. “Let’s build a snowcastle.” 

* * *

The snow on the grounds was still pristine, so much so that Ada almost didn’t want to disturb it. But Hecate handed her a vial labeled ‘Warming Potion’ before downing one herself. 

“I love to build snowcastles,” Ada said. “Ever since I was a child. But it doesn’t seem like your sort of thing.” 

“I built snow witches every year,” Hecate said. “At Miss Amulet’s.” 

“Miss Amulet’s was a wonderful place, wasn’t it?” Ada asked, happy for the distraction of talking about anything besides her family. 

“It was,” Hecate said. “Much like Cackle’s.” She looked at Ada with such intensity that Ada understood what she was trying to say. 

“Thank you, Hecate. I know you have research to do.” 

“It will keep.” Hecate raised her hands in front of her, twisting them so that the snow swirled around their feet, lifting from the ground. Ada was overwhelmed, suddenly, by this image of Hecate, surrounded by the whirling snow, taking time away from a matter that was quite literally keeping her up nights in order to provide Ada with this distraction. “Now,” Hecate said. “Where do we start?”

“I usually start with the walls,” Ada said, casting a spell herself to arrange the snow into a shape vaguely resembling the academy. “Then the towers.” 

“Excellent,” Hecate said, looking as focused as she did when brewing a particularly complex potion. “Lead on, Headmistress.” 


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 17: Snowed In

“I do hope you hadn’t intended to go anywhere today,” Ada said as soon as she awoke, summoning her dressing gown and padding over to the window. From her place in the armchair, Hecate followed Ada’s gaze out the window. “It seems a fresh coat of snow has arrived.” 

Hecate couldn’t bring herself to do anything more than nod. She had woken early again, but she was pleased to see that Ada had managed to get some rest. The last thing Ada needed, now or ever, was to deal with Agatha’s foolishness. But Hecate didn’t know how to express that in a way that wouldn’t offend Ada, so she simply asked, “And how are you feeling?”

“Much better, Hecate, thank you,” Ada said, still looking out the window. “It was silly of me to…” she sighed deeply. “In any case, I think it’s best we stay inside today.” 

“That’s just as well,” Hecate said. “There’s plenty more research to be done.” 

* * *

Research that, as it turned out, proved more frustrating than enlightening. Hecate spent the entire morning and the better part of the afternoon in front of the fire in Ada’s bedroom, her potions texts around her, scribbling in her notebook. 

Finished with tilia root, wolf’s foot, and agrimony, she moved on to the final two ingredients, hoping against hope that they would lead somewhere. 

Snakeskin could mean a variety of things, but in most cases, it symbolized regeneration of some sort, whether physical or spiritual. The yew was the most troubling. Hecate had never used yew in a potion, and now she could see why...some cultures considered the yew tree to stand between worlds, between life and death. There was nothing good that could come from yew being added to a potion. 

Hecate stood up and stretched, pacing back and forth across the room. What was it Diana had gotten herself involved with? Poisoning? Necromancy? Murder? 

“Any thoughts?” Ada said, looking up from her own book. Hecate knew Ada was trying to help, but she was still distant, still clearly trying to focus her thoughts on their task. 

“No,” Hecate said, trying to tie it all together. What would protection, unity, and regeneration have to do with a death spell? Perhaps the coven sought to kill someone and wanted protection from being discovered. Perhaps they thought that ridding the world of an enemy would cause healing for everyone else. 

“Hecate,” Ada said, drawing her out of her thoughts. “Come look at this. I know it’s a gardening text, not a potions one, but it may be of use.” 

Hecate took the book -  _ Northern Gardens for Health and Prosperity -  _ and flipped through it absentmindedly. Ada must have felt that the word ‘Northern’ in the title would make it worth a look. 

She stopped her perusal at the section titled “Lime Trees of the North.” “The lime tree, or genus tilia, is a family of beautiful, decorative trees revered for their loveliness in any garden. A discerning witch will appreciate the lime tree’s fibrous bark, aromatic fruit, and beautiful flowers, which may be used for healing teas and protective spells. And there is no need to worry about the lifespan of the lime tree. Some specimens have lived as long as 700 years, leading some ancient peoples to consider it the tree of immortality.” 

That was it - the tilia root wasn’t for protection, it was for immortality. Agrimony for unity, wolf’s foot for the preservation of memory. With yew for death and snakeskin for rebirth...

Hecate dropped the book, sinking back to her knees. Oh. Oh no.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 18 Stars

Ada saw the moment Hecate made some sort of realization, but what it was, she had no idea. “Did you find something, Hecate?” she chanced. 

Hecate didn’t look at Ada. She kept her eyes firmly on the notebook on the floor in front of her. “This potion, it’s...I don’t know what it’s called but it’s a serum for transformation, for…” 

“What is it, Hecate?”

If there was one thing Ada had learned about Hecate over the years, it was that her emotions arrived much like Hecate herself - abruptly, and with no warning. She erupted into tears, weeping and gasping, holding herself forcefully around the middle. “Oh, my dear,” Ada breathed, lowering herself to the ground behind Hecate, encircling her in her arms. 

Ada waited, a heavy feeling in her chest, as Hecate exhausted herself. “There, there,” she whispered. “It’s alr - ” She stopped herself. She didn’t know exactly what was going on, but whatever it was, it certainly wasn’t alright. “I’m right here,” she said instead. 

Hecate quieted, releasing her grip on herself and slumping against Ada. “I take it you’ve figured out the potion,” Ada said. 

“It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before, Ada. It’s a...a transformation potion. For death and rebirth.” 

“What do you think they intend to do with the potion?” Ada asked. “Kill someone?”

“No,” Hecate said. “It’s for...It’s for the Dead Reckoning. And since my mother had the cauldron…” 

Ada gasped. “She’s the next founder member.” 

* * *

Ada found Hecate on the grounds, in the middle of the garden, staring up to the sky. After her outburst, Hecate had asked to be alone. Ada assumed that Hecate wanted to retire to her rooms, perhaps to sleep. 

But when Ada had gone to wish Hecate a good night, she found the rooms empty but for Morgana lounging about on the sofa. 

“I am sorry, Hecate,” she said, making sure to stand just behind Hecate, to give her space. “All I wanted was to say goodnight, to check that you were alright before I turn in.” 

Hecate didn’t move, didn’t even turn around. She just stood there, looking at the stars, her black cloak painting a stark picture against the white of the snow, even in the dark. “I should have known,” Hecate said. 

Of anything Ada had expected her to say, that certainly wasn’t it. “How could you? You only learned about the existence of the Eternal Cast this week.” 

“No, not the Eternal Cast. I should have seen how unhappy she was, how desperate to prove herself, to have her power recognized.” 

Ada sighed. She wanted to insist that Hecate shouldn’t blame herself, shouldn’t take responsibility for her mother’s choices, but how could she? She had lain awake many a night after Agatha was sent to Wormwood’s, thinking the same thing. 

“And now she’ll be more powerful than anyone,” Hecate went on, her voice empty. 

“But that won’t solve anything, will it?” Ada asked, taking a tentative step toward Hecate. “It won’t fill whatever void is inside her.” 

“That’s it,” Hecate said, finally turning to face her. “Ada, that’s...I need to see her, to convince her not to do this. She’s fallen prey to this coven, to their ideals and promises, but if she hears from me, perhaps…” Hecate looked at Ada, searching and hopeful. 

“Perhaps,” Ada said. She wasn’t fully convinced - all of her efforts to save Agatha had come up short, after all. “It is worth a try, Hecate.” 

Hecate took a step forward, her eyes locked intensely on Ada’s. Ada knew this was an important moment, that despite her own misgivings, Hecate needed nothing but her support. She opened her arms, and Hecate stepped into them, her head on Ada’s shoulder. Ada enfolded her in an embrace. “We’ll leave in the morning.” 


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 19: Holiday Singing

Hecate sat beside Ada in a private compartment, staring out the window as the train barreled toward the highlands. They had decided to take the train as far north as it would go, then ride their broomsticks over the firth separating the mainland from the Isles. Ada was quiet, had been quiet all morning, giving Hecate more than enough time to think. 

“They’re going to do it on the Solstice,” Hecate said, suddenly sure of herself. She couldn’t say where this revelation had come from, but now that she’d uttered it aloud, she knew it was true. 

“Was that in your research?” Ada asked. 

“No, but...I just know.” Hecate had been saying that a lot lately, and it was against everything she normally believed. But she did. She did know. 

“I believe you. So we have only a short time to fly there, find the coven, and convince your mother not to go through with the ceremony.” 

“That appears to be the shape of things, yes.” Hecate sighed, leaning her head against the window, the cold glass on her forehead feeling strangely familiar. She hardly noticed that Ada had moved closer until Ada draped an arm around her shoulder. “Ada,” she said, “We shouldn’t-”

“I’ve cast a protective spell, Hecate,” Ada said. “And a silencing spell. There’s nothing to worry about.” Ada gasped and quickly went on. “What a terrible thing to say. I’m sorry, Hecate.” 

“It’s quite alright,” Hecate said, allowing herself to lean against Ada. She hated going into anything - a staff meeting, a lesson, even a mirror call with her family - without a plan. But here she was, on a train north, her only real idea to get her mother alone and convince her not to receive centuries worth of power. It was flimsy at best. 

Their compartment was quiet again, until a sound echoed from the halls - someone was singing. “Said the little lamb to the shepherd boy, Do you hear what I hear? Ringing through the sky shepherd boy, Do you hear what I hear? A song, a song, high above the trees, with a voice as big as the seas.” 

“Oh, how lovely,” Ada said. 

“What is that?” Hecate asked. “Carolers?”

“Said the shepherd boy to the mighty king,” the song went on. “Do you know what I know? In your palace wall mighty king, Do you know what I know? A child, a child, shivers in the cold, let us bring him silver and gold.” 

“I suppose it is,” Ada said. 

“On a train?” At Ada’s shrug, Hecate said, “I don’t know this song. It sounds quite sad.” 

“I think that’s just the key,” Ada responded. “It’s about spreading good news, really.” She didn’t comment on Hecate’s lack of knowledge. She never did. 

“Let’s hope it’s a good omen, then,” Hecate said as the carolers moved on to a song about riding in a sleigh. She would never admit it aloud, but it really was quite beautiful. 

* * *

The wind was bitter and the sky nearly dark when they disembarked from the train. Hecate took two of the vials of warming potion out of her cloak, handed one to Ada, and quickly drank the other. It made very little difference. 

They walked for a while, toward the cliffs, until the other passengers had gone off to their homes or the inn. 

“Are you ready?” Ada asked once they were alone. Hecate nodded and summoned their brooms. “Where do we go from here?” Ada asked. 

Hecate looked out over the water, to the islands in the distance. “North.” 


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 20: Holiday Spirits

They landed on an island that was near desolate, the only sign of life an old unused lighthouse and its more modern replacement. The land was flat and would have been fit for grazing, were it not covered in snow. When Ada turned around, she took in sweeping views of the sea on all sides. It was the exact sort of place Ada could imagine the Vicious Circle residing. 

There was one bright spot, however, The sun had set during their flight, and when Ada looked up, it was to be met with the most beautiful vision she had ever seen in her life. “The Northern Lights,” Ada found herself saying in awe. Now was hardly the time to bring it up, but Ada had always wanted to see the Northern Lights. “That has to be a good omen, hasn’t it?”

Hecate was quiet for a moment. “I’m sure the coven is thinking that as well.” 

* * *

Ada cast a cloaking spell over herself and Hecate. In such an empty, barren land, one couldn’t be too careful. “How shall we find them?” she asked. “I very much doubt they’d allow themselves to be tracked by a discovery spell.” 

“We won’t need to cast a spell,” Hecate said, pointing off into the distance. Ada followed her gaze, squinting to make out whatever Hecate was trying to indicate. “Look, Ada. Fire.” 

* * *

For some reason, Ada had convinced herself that she would know Diana Hardbroom when she saw her. But as they approached the coven, moving silently so as to avoid drawing attention to themselves, she realized that may not be the case. She had never met Diana, after all. Never seen as much as a photograph. 

But it was clear the instant the coven was in their view. All save one of the witches were gathered in a circle, around the largest cauldron Ada had ever seen. Flames licked the bottom of the clay cauldron, casting all of the witches in a eerie light against the snow. 

And one witch stood apart. “That’s her,” Hecate breathed, nodding toward the solitary witch. She was draped in a pure white cloak, her hair looped into a topknot reminiscent of Hecate’s. They did look alike, Ada realized. This was Hecate’s mother, there was no question. 

They crept closer, and Ada strained to listen to the coven, to see if the ceremony had yet started. 

“We gather on this night,” one of the witches said. “The darkest of the year. For darkness will provide us with sanctuary and will witness our holy rite. We call upon the four elements. Lend us your power.” 

“Snow,” another witch called, raising her hands out in front of her. “Cloak us in security. Hide us from our foes.” 

“Flame,” said another. “Fuel our righteousness. Light our way through the darkness of this world.” 

“Storm. Rain down your mighty power. Lend us your fury and your strength.” 

“Frost. Preserve our magic. Keep it alive for generations.”

The witch leading the ceremony spoke again. “We call upon the spirits of the sisters who walked before, of the founder members whose magic is here with us tonight. Protect our sister Azalea Axelwood, founder member of the Eternal Cast, as she gifts her powers and transcends this world.” A witch who looked older than any Ada had seen in her life stepped forward to the middle of the circle. “We thank you for your gifts, for your vision, and for your power. Sisters, let us honor our founder.” 

A witch started speaking, telling a story of Azalea Axelwood’s recruiting her into the coven. This was to be a tribute, Ada realized. One that could take quite some time. 

“Now’s your chance, Hecate,” Ada said. 

Hecate took a tentative step forward, unveiling herself as she did. “Mother,” she said. 


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 21: Yule/Winter Solstice

When her mother turned around, Hecate was greeted with a witch she didn’t know. Diana Hardbroom was always beautiful in Hecate’s eyes, but others would have described her as severe or striking. But now, she looked...she looked like a goddess, in her white cloak with her light skin and black hair against the snow. She looked younger somehow, well fed, in clothes that were tailored to her figure. It made Hecate’s heart break for everything her mother had lost. 

“Mother, I know what you’re doing,” Hecate said. “I know about the Dead Reckoning. I know that you’re looking for immortality, but I’m begging you - ”

“Everyone desires immortality, Hecate,” Diana said. Even her voice was different, was more melodic somehow. If she was surprised to see her daughter, she didn’t show it. “We all just achieve it in different ways. But I have been denied the opportunity to build something permanent with my gifts, and my family name will, it seems, die with you. This way, my magic will live on, will be a part of other witches and their great works, long after I’m gone.” 

Hecate wanted to disagree with that - it was, after all, in direct violation of the very spirit that made up the Witches’ Code. That life had a certain rhythm, that witches come and go, that interfering with these truths was the worst evil a witch could pursue. And yet, she found herself understanding. It was why she had chosen to become a teacher, in the end. 

“Please, Mother,” Hecate said, realizing too late that her voice had taken on a hint of desperation. “There are other ways. Please don’t do this.” 

“Oh, Hecate.” Diana reached for her, taking both of Hecate’s hands in her own. Despite everything, despite what she was here to prevent, Hecate felt her heart lurch. She gripped her mother’s hands tightly. “It’s alright. I’m alright. I’m doing this for you, for all of us. Once I have the power, I can help you…” 

Hecate felt ice run through her blood. Help her how? What could that possibly mean? A terrifying thought overtook her. “You’d use magic against me?”

“Of course not, Hecate. I’d use magic _for_ you. I’ve done everything for you. I didn’t get to attend an academy, and I _begged_ …” She trailed off, the shame that Hecate associated with her childhood returning to her mother’s voice. “I begged Miss Amulet to give you a scholarship. And now look at you. Weirdsister College, Witch Training College… You were on your way to becoming something great. To giving the next generation of Hardbrooms what I could never give you. Finally people are beginning to see what we are, what we should be. And now, when we’re on the verge of regaining our reputation, you wish to...to give it up.” 

Hecate felt her breathing speed up, panic starting to overwhelm her. What had she expected coming here? That her mother would simply turn away from all of that magic, from what she had always thought about their family’s power, from her long-held belief that a witch’s success could only be measured one way? What was she thinking? “Please…” she said. “Please come with me. Please…” She was losing control, she knew. 

Diana pulled her into a tight embrace. “It’s alright, Hecate,” she said. “It’s going to be alright.” 

Despite herself, Hecate clung to her mother, until a voice called out, “We call forth Diana Hardbroom, the next founder member of the Eternal Cast.” 

Diana released Hecate, and without a look back, strode toward the coven, toward the flames. 

Hecate couldn’t watch, but she heard the witch go on. “On this, the night of Winter Solstice, we witness the end of one era, the beginning of another. Just as nature intended, just as it should be. Azalea Axelwood’s reign as founder member ends tonight, but her magic lives forever, with the magic of all who have walked before. Diana Hardbroom, receive your destiny.” 


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 22: Hot Tub. True confession time...this was the one prompt I could quite make work, either as a feature or a cameo. But it did inspire how this chapter went. So instead have hot...cauldron?
> 
> Also, this is one of the more intense chapters. I'm going to put another warning in the end notes so there's nothing spoiler-y up here.

Ada sighed as Diana joined the coven, then she approached Hecate as quietly as possible. She couldn’t say she was surprised, but Hecate clearly was. 

Hecate was barely with her, Ada realized. But still, Ada wrapped Hecate in the cloaking spell. “We need to go, Hecate,” Ada said. Even with the darkness around them, even with the danger of flying at night, Ada knew they couldn’t stay here. 

“No,” Hecate said. “Ada, I need to see. I can’t explain it, but I need…” 

There was no arguing, Ada realized. “Alright, my dear,” she said, choosing instead to stand behind Hecate, bracing both hands on her shoulders, trying to ground her somehow. 

Ada felt sick to her stomach as the witch leading the ritual spoke. “With the power of the four elements, under the witness of the Northern Lights. We align with what came before, the true north of our heritage, and we allow it to guide us into the future.”

The old founder held out her hands, speaking in a weak voice that Ada needed to strain to hear. “I, Azalea Axelwood, upon this the hour of my death, do freely and of sound mind undertake this ritual. Diana Hardbroom, come forward.” 

She did, her white cloak billowing behind her. Two witches stepped forward, removing the cloak, leaving Diana in a white dress that must have done very little to protect her against the cold. 

“Diana Hardbroom,” Azalea Axelwood continued. “The potion you have prepared for your transformation is ready.” The witches accompanied Diana as they all strode toward the cauldron. Ada realized with a gasp just why the cauldron was so large. Diana climbed into it, and Ada wondered at how the cauldron wasn’t so hot as to scald her skin. 

Ada felt Hecate draw in a deep breath as Diana disappeared, submerged into the potion. She reemerged a moment later, her skin and hair glistening with the potion, a perverse sort of baptism having taken place. The two witches helped her out of the cauldron and wrapped her in the cloak. 

“Having been purified,” the ceremony’s leader declared. “You are fit to receive your power.” 

Diana stepped forward, as if in a trance. Azalea Axelwood took both of her hands, speaking in her soft voice. “My witches powers to thee I give, may my magic forever live.” 

The land itself was silent. Even the fire ceased its sparking. No one so much as breathed. Then a bright light flashed from Azalea Axelwood’s chest, encircling Diana for a moment, until the magic permeated through her skin. 

Diana Hardbroom positively radiated with power - it seemed to come off her in waves, to fill her entire being. She spun in a circle, looking as brilliant as the Northern Lights above them. 

Azalea Axelwood dropped to the ground in the middle of the circle. Was she… Oh hell. Somehow, it had never crossed Ada’s mind that the old founder member would die immediately. But she was so old, so frail, probably held together with magic alone. 

A dread overtook Ada all at once. “We need to go, Hecate. Now.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Non-gruesome death of a minor character.


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 23: Tradition

Hecate knew Ada was trying to get her to move. But she couldn’t take her eyes off her mother, radiant as she was. Was this the witch Hecate had somehow missed, hidden beneath the harsh facade of her mother? Always criticizing Hecate for wanting too much, for being unsatisfied, for wishing to be like everyone else? Wasn’t that exactly what Diana had just done? What was more frivolous, more unnecessary, than infinite power, than immortality?

“I thank thee, sisters, whose magic lives within me,” Diana said, raising her arms toward the heavens, toward the Northern Lights. “And I humbly accept my sacred duty, to hear the wisdom of the past, to lead the Eternal Cast into the future.” 

“Our founder member,” the witch leading the ritual declared. “We hail your power, we bow to your will.” 

All of the witches around the circle bowed deeply, and Diana smiled benevolently on them. Hecate was shivering, shaking against Ada’s hands. She had failed. Her mother had gone through with it. 

As they rose, the witches encircled her mother, fawning over and congratulating her, all smiles and laughter as if there were not a dead woman only a yard away. Hecate felt like she were going to be ill. 

“One moment, sisters,” Diana said, and given how much power she now possessed, no one moved to stop her. Stepping just outside the circle, she cast her eyes around, easily seeing through Ada’s cloaking spell. Hecate froze, bracing herself, and she felt Ada’s hands tighten against her shoulders. 

But her mother didn’t approach them. She merely kept her eyes on Hecate. Though she didn’t open her mouth, Hecate heard her words as clearly as if they had been spoken aloud. “Blood of my blood, flesh of my flesh. In nature to dwell, in tradition to rest. Align with us now, today and all days, my daughter to be, my lifeblood to stay.” 

Hecate tried to raise a hand to put up a protective spell, but she was much slower, much weaker. She doubled over. Her head swam. Where was she? She felt earth under her feet, but where…? 

When she forced herself to look up, she saw her mother and wanted, more than anything, more than ever, her mother’s approval. Her mother’s love. An image sprang to mind - herself at an elaborate table, enjoying a holiday feast, her mother on one side, her father on the other. She could have this, she realized. If she left right now, fought against whoever was holding her back, joined the coven…

Suddenly, there were strong arms around her, and she was gone. 


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 24: Skiing

Transferring from the North Isles back to the academy was perhaps the stupidest thing Ada had ever done in her life. She landed in her room abruptly, Hecate slumping from her arms. With the last of her strength, Ada managed to get Hecate into bed, to pull the covers over her shaking body.

“I need to…” Hecate muttered. “I can’t be here.” 

Ada knew it was a spell, but in her exhaustion, she couldn’t help but be hurt. Diana Hardbroom hadn’t only received the dead reckoning. She had used her magic in the worst possible way - to control the mind of another witch. Not just another witch - her only child. 

She needed to break the spell, and fast. But she was weak - she had used up the last of her magical strength to get here. She needed assistance. 

* * *

The mirror had barely begun to ring when Miss Bat answered. She was bundled almost ridiculously in a down coat and bright green earmuffs. “I do hope I’m not interrupting your holiday,” Ada said out of habit. What did she care if she was interrupting? Hecate was under a mind control spell. 

“I was only broomstick skiing with my coven,” Miss Bat said in all seriousness. “Nothing to worry about.” 

“How would that even work?” Ada asked, then quickly stopped herself. “On second thought, I do not need to know. I need your help, Miss Bat.” 

“It’s Gwen, Ada. And whatever is wrong?”

“It’s Hecate, she’s been...I don’t know what to call it. She’s been cursed. She’s under a spell.” 

There was no answer, but within a second, Gwen’s image had disappeared from the mirror, and Gwen herself re-appeared beside Ada. “Where is she?”

“I’ve put her in bed,” Ada said, “In my bed. I…” She suddenly realized she had no idea what Miss Bat knew of her relationship with Hecate - what Alma had told her, if anything. 

“Don’t insult me with whatever excuse you’re about to come up with,” Miss Bat said, making Ada feel like a pupil again. “I’m an old woman, and I’ve seen everything. You could hardly fool me. We need to help Hecate. Let’s go.” 

* * *

“Here,” Gwen said, summoning a vial and handing it to Ada. “Drink this. It’s a rejuvenating potion.” She examined Hecate as Ada threw back the potion as quickly as her stiff limbs would allow. “Whatever this spell is, it’s a powerful one. It’s going to take both of us to figure out what to do.” 

“Thank you,” Ada said, feeling some of her strength starting to return. She wasn’t back up to her full power, but it was better than nothing. 

Hecate was saying something, squirming in the bed, clearly trying to get up, to go somewhere. But she was as weak as Ada when they arrived, and she didn’t have the ability to stand. “Hold her down,” Gwen said. 

“Physically?” 

“Yes,” Gwen answered. “It’s the only way. We need to restrain her without using any more of your strength. I’ll perform a protective chant. It won’t break the curse, but it will offer her some relief, some clarity of mind. At least she’ll know what’s real and what isn’t.” 

Ada did as told, pinning Hecate’s arms at her sides, resting her forehead against Hecate’s. “I truly am sorry, my dear,” she whispered. Her heart started to race, but she willed herself to stay calm. She didn’t have time to be afraid. She didn’t have time for anything other than figuring out how to break the spell. 

Above them, Gwen began her chant, a high, mournful lullaby: 

_ “Snowflakes falling outside as you sleep, _

_ Be content my child.  _

_ Rest your head and let me keep watch for a while.  _

_ Though it’s cold outside I’m right here with you.  _

_ I will keep you safe,  _

_ Wish for pleasant dreams to guide you from this place.  _

_ Here we are in this cruel world,  _

_ I’ll walk through the world with you.  _

_ Someone tries to bring harm your way,  _

_ But I’m here to stay with you.  _

_ Go to sleep, allow my chant to cover _

_ You like falling snow.  _

_ Far away your pain and fear will surely go  _

_ And all my love will you, my dear, forever know.  _

Ada felt tears rolling down her face. But it worked. Hecate quit fighting - her eyes closed and she collapsed against the pillow. Now to break the spell. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Miss Bat's song is set to the tune of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." I hope anyone reading who celebrates it does just that!


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 25: Winter Myths/Legends

Hecate hadn’t thought herself asleep, but she felt herself wake. She knew that she was in Ada’s bedroom, in Ada’s bed. But in her mind, she was still in her childhood bedroom, shivering from the cold. 

“You are a disgrace to the name of Hardbroom.” Her mother’s voice echoed in her mind, and Hecate couldn’t tell if it was a memory, or if Diana were speaking to her through the curse. “Come to me, come back to the family, to the coven.” 

“No,” Hecate said, unsure if she were speaking or simply thinking it. “I’m staying here.” 

* * *

“This is too powerful a spell.” It took Hecate a moment to recognize the voice - Miss Bat. “We won’t be able to break it.”

“But can we contain it? Redirect it?” That was Ada. The voices were distant, as if Hecate were hearing Ada and Miss Bat speaking in another room. 

“You’re suggesting a diversion spell?” Miss Bat asked. 

“Yes, but perhaps with an adaptation. A diversion spell with an entrapment spell.”

“Do you know anything of the sort?”

“No,” Ada said. Hecate clung to the sound of her voice, letting it become an anchor for her tumultuous mind. “But give me a moment, and I’ll construct one.”

“While you do,” Miss Bat said. “I’ll find something to contain the magic directed at Hecate.” 

They were quiet for some time. Hecate found herself wishing that they would speak again, to give her something to hold on to, but she couldn’t get the words out. 

“I have something,” Miss Bat finally said. “Are you ready?”

“As I’ll ever be,” Ada answered. Her voice changed to the one Hecate had come to associate with her spellcasting. “Amaranth gathered under full moon’s light, Grasp this spell and hold it tight. Betony and elderflower, Here collect this witch’s power.” 

Miss Bat’s voice joined Ada’s and they chanted the spell, over and over. 

* * *

Suddenly, the world was clear. Hecate was still cold, but she could no longer hear the voices. She could no longer picture her childhood home. She was in Ada’s room, in Ada’s bed. Ada and Miss Bat were standing over her, a large hourglass on the bed in front of them, their eyes closed and their hands joined. 

Hecate drew in a deep breath, and the sound must have alerted Ada and Miss Bat that she was back. They snapped their heads up in unison, examining her carefully, but what they were looking for, Hecate didn’t know. “Hecate?” Ada said, at the same time Miss Bat asked, “Are you alright, dear? Can you hear us?”

“I am,” Hecate said. “I can.” 

“Marvelous,” Ada said, sinking to the bed beside Hecate. 

Hecate had regained enough awareness to feel a panic overcome her at the possibility of being discovered. Fortunately, Miss Bat said, “I’m off to the kitchens to fetch you a nice bowl of soup and a cup of tea. You need to warm up.” She disappeared without another word. 

Ada pulled Hecate in for a kiss. “You’re alright,” she murmured. 

“What did you do?” Hecate asked, her mind whirling. “How did you break the spell?”

“We didn’t,” Ada said. “We couldn’t. We just contained it.” 

Miss Bat reappeared, a tray in her hands. She set it on the bed in front of Ada and Hecate and settled herself in an armchair. As soon as Hecate realized that privacy was out of the question, she tried to move out of Ada’s grasp. But Ada was stronger on the best of days, and she held Hecate to her side just long enough to whisper “It’s alright, Hecate. She knows.” 

Of course she did. Hecate leaned back against the headboard, allowing Ada to settle the tray in her lap and uncover a steaming bowl of soup. “I don’t think so,” Hecate said as Ada attempted to lift the spoon to her mouth. “I can feed myself.” 

“It seems as though our spell is still holding,” Miss Bat said, nodding toward the hourglass, which now sat on the night table. A sparkling, pale blue liquid dripped from the top half into the bottom. 

“What is it you did, exactly?” Hecate asked. As loathe as she was to admit it, the soup was doing its trick. She felt awake and in need of answers. “What is that hourglass measuring?”

“It’s not measuring anything,” Miss Bat said. “It’s an entrapment spell.” 

“We’ve cast a spell on the hourglass,” Ada said. “To contain any magic directed from your mother toward you.” 

“Is she aware of it?” Hecate asked, regarding the hourglass suspiciously. 

“No,” Ada said. “She still thinks she’s casting it at you.”

“So the spell itself is in the hourglass?”

Ada and Miss Bat looked at each other. Ada nodded slightly and Miss Bat said, “Not only the spell. The power she’s putting into it.” 

“So you’re…” Hecate felt cold again. “You’re draining her?”

“She has more than enough magic to spare,” Miss Bat said. 

“I’m sorry, Hecate.” Ada said. “I couldn’t think of another way.” 

“Quite alright.” It was true - her mother wouldn’t even notice this loss. Hecate looked back at the hourglass, at the slow, steady trickle of water. “I’ve never heard of such a spell. It’s incredible.” 

“Ada is an incredible magician,” Miss Bat said. 

“As are you,” Ada returned. 

“And it doesn’t hurt that today is such an auspicious day for magic.” 

“The Solstice was yesterday, Miss Bat,” Hecate said. Even in her stupor, she had known that. 

“Yes, I know, Hecate. Haven’t you heard the legends?” Hecate shook her head, and Miss Bat continued. “Legend tells us that the Solstice, the shortest day of the year, is the time for spells of secret, of darkness. But today, the day after Solstice...Today, it’s just a little brighter than it was yesterday. And if that isn’t magic, I don’t know what is.” 


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 26: First Holiday Together

“I do apologize, Ada,” Hecate said, finally emerging from the bedroom. “This cannot be what you imagined for our first holiday together.” 

“Quite alright dear,” Ada said automatically, looking up from her book to stare at the hourglass, which she had placed on the coffee table in front of the fire. 

Hecate gave a little snort. Clearly, she didn’t believe a word Ada was saying. She picked up the lavender throw, looped it around her shoulders, and lowered herself onto the settee beside Ada. “It’s not alright,” she said, her eyes darting from the roaring fire to the tree they had decorated only a short time ago. “I’ve gone and gotten us involved in this...this…” She trailed off, but Ada understood. “What did I think was going to happen?” Hecate asked. “That she would give up all of that power? That she would simply walk away?”

“I’m sure you  _ weren’t _ thinking that she would place you under a spell,” Ada offered. 

“You’re right in that regard. I knew she wanted a different life for me - for me to make a name for myself, for me to continue the Hardbroom family line, to…” 

“To marry well and preserve tradition?” Ada asked, more than aware she was drawing from her own past as well as Hecate’s. 

Hecate laughed a little. “All of that. But I never would have imagined...I knew she disagreed, but to think she would take control like that…” She shivered. 

And that’s what it was all about, wasn’t it? Diana Hardbroom, the Eternal Cast, they had to control. They couldn’t be satisfied with the rich variety of nature, the delightful chaos of humanity. The joy that came from a moment as complex, as fraught, as unexpected as this one. 

Ada wrapped one arm around Hecate and lifted her other hand toward the tree, twisting her fingers to create dozens of floating red candles. The room was immediately bathed in their flickering light. “I wish I knew what to say, Hecate,” Ada said. “What to do.” 

“You’ve already done it,” Hecate responded. “You contained the spell.” 

“But will that be enough? Sooner or later, the glass will burst or she’ll expect you to come to her, to work beside her. What then?”

“I suppose we’ll have to be quicker than that,” Hecate said. “Perhaps after a night of sleep, I’ll be sharper.” 

“That’s true,” Ada said, choosing to ignore the fact that Hecate hadn’t achieved a full night of sleep all month. “We’ll make a plan in the morning.” Hecate nodded against her, and Ada knew it was time for a change in subject. “Would you like to open your gift?”


	27. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 27: Fireside Confessions

“My gift?” Hecate asked from her place leaning against Ada’s shoulder. She looked over to the tree, but didn’t see any gifts beneath or upon it. With most witches, that wouldn’t have meant anything, but Ada was apparently quite a traditionalist when it came to the holidays. 

“Indeed,” Ada said, and a small box materialized beneath the tree. Perhaps it had simply been invisible. 

Hecate raised her hand, hoping that she had regained enough strength for such a simple spell. It worked. Her own gift for Ada appeared under the tree as well. 

“Marvelous,” Ada said with what was obviously relief, before standing to help Hecate from the settee, helping her to settle in front of the fire, beside the tree. It was everything Hecate had dreamed of, each freezing holiday of her childhood. 

Ada spread the throw over her lap, and if she hadn’t already been emotionally spent, that gesture alone would have done her in. 

Ada picked up the small box wrapped in a bright red paper and placed it into Hecate’s hand. “For you, my dear,” she said. 

Hecate unwrapped it slowly, knowing each small memory would remain with her long after this night. She gasped when she drew out the gift - a golden watch on a chain. Never in her life had she seen something so indulgent, so luxurious. “Oh,” she breathed. “Oh, Ada.” 

“May I?” Ada asked, pulling the watch from its box and delicately draping it around Hecate’s neck. Though Hecate was only in her flannel nightdress, she knew it was beautiful, it was perfect. 

“Ada,” she said again. Absent anything else to add, she simply handed Ada her own gift, her heart beating loudly. 

“Hecate, it’s lovely,” Ada said, setting Hecate’s frayed nerves at ease. She pinned the delicate silver brooch to the collar of her pajama set. It looked ridiculous, but it still made Hecate smile. 

They were silent for a moment, looking into the fire. Hecate resisted the urge to apologize again for turning their holiday into the adventure it had become. 

But she didn’t need to say anything at all. “This is perfect,” Ada said. 

“Really?” Hecate asked before she could think. 

“Yes,” Ada answered without hesitation. “No, it isn’t what we’d planned, but when has life ever gone according to plan?”

Hecate laughed. “Our lives, in any case.” 

“And I wouldn’t want it any other way.” Ada looked into the flames for a long moment. She finally turned back to look into Hecate’s eyes, her own welling with tears. Hecate felt her heart speed up at what was about to happen. “Hecate, I … I’m afraid I’ve quite fallen for you. Whatever happens - now, and for however long I remain on this earth - I will be by your side.” 

Hecate’s throat tightened suddenly. “Ada - ” She stopped to clear her throat and turned toward the fire. It felt easier somehow to speak her mind with the added distance of avoiding Ada’s eyes. But that wasn’t right. After everything Ada had done for her, she at least owed her this, the straightforward truth. 

Hecate looked back at Ada, reaching out to adjust her collar, the one with the brooch Hecate had painstakingly picked out. “Ada, I will never be able to thank you for what you have done for me, these past weeks and always.” She cleared her throat again. “Whatever happens - with my mother, with the rest of my life - you are my family.” 

All of the breath seemed to rush out of Ada at once, and she reached for Hecate, meeting her in a kiss. For the first time in a long while, Hecate felt herself warm as she sank to the ground beside Ada, the fire roaring in the hearth beside them. 


	28. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 28: Locked out in the cold

Hecate hardly slept that night, but she was true to her word - she was indeed much sharper in the morning. Ada woke to an image of Hecate sitting up in bed, the enchanted hourglass in her hands. “This hourglass,” Hecate said as Ada yawned, attempting to pull herself from sleep. “It’s trapping all of the magic she’s directing at me?”

“That’s correct,” Ada said, unsure where this was going. 

“So no matter what she attempts to cast in my direction, the containment spell will trap it?”

“I believe so,” Ada said, her stomach sinking with dread. “Why?” 

“I have an idea.” 

* * *

“Hecate, I’m not sure how I feel about this,” Ada said as they flew. She had said it at least five times that morning, and this time proved no different. 

“I know it doesn’t seem ideal,” Hecate said in a tone that implied they were discussing a supply order, not a life or death spell. “But it’s the only way. She has so much power...I need to stop her before she uses it to hurt someone.” 

“She’s using it to hurt you,” Ada argued yet again. 

“No, she just thinks she is,” Hecate said. “Thanks to you.” She pointed toward the ground and started her descent, though she didn’t need to. Ada remembered their last flight to Hecate’s childhood home. 

Ada hadn’t asked how Hecate determined where her mother was, whether it was a simple discovery spell or if Diana Hardbroom’s curse had opened a line of communication Ada wasn’t aware of. 

“You don’t have to do this, Ada,” Hecate said as they landed down the alleyway from the house. “There’s no enchanted hourglass catching any magic she may direct at you.” 

“I know, Hecate,” Ada said, though that very thought had occurred to her as they flew. She was in danger, she knew that. But she couldn’t imagine waiting back at the academy while Hecate attempted to confront her own mother. “I told you last night that I’ll always be here. I don’t see this an an exception.” 

Hecate didn’t say anything in response. She simply held out the hourglass, which Ada took gingerly, then walked toward the house. 

* * *

Hecate hadn’t even knocked when the door flew open. “Hecate.” For a split second, Diana Hardbroom’s voice was full of warmth. She clearly thought her spell had worked. But then she saw Ada. “What are you doing here?” she asked, her tone more cautious. 

Ada quickly vanished the hourglass and strode up beside Hecate, trying her best not to let her nerves show and silently raising a protective shield. Every instinct told her to cast a similar spell around Hecate, but she didn’t know if that would interfere with the entrapment spell. 

“I can’t let you do this,” Hecate said, and Ada felt a surge of relief that she hadn’t played their hand too early, that she hadn’t revealed her knowledge of the mind-control spell. “I can’t let you be part of the Vicious Circle. I can’t let you participate in their actions.” 

“Do not call us that,” Diana Hardbroom snapped. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.” 

“I think I do,” Hecate said. She raised a hand in front of her face. “I’m sorry, Mother.” 

Whatever spell Hecate had been planning to cast, she didn’t get a chance. Within seconds, both Hecate and Ada were enveloped in a snowstorm unlike any Ada had experienced in her life. The snowflakes stung at their cheeks, ripped through their cloaks. Even with her protective shield, Ada felt herself trembling from the cold. 

Through the wind, Ada forced herself to look up. Hecate stood in the middle of the snow, easily holding her ground. Her hair had come loose from its topknot and blew about her face. She kept both hands in front of her but didn’t appear to be casting any spells. Ada knew it was essential she look like she was putting up a fight, to keep the magic directed at her as long as possible. But still, Ada had to stop herself from interfering, from doing anything to stop the torrential snowstorm. 

As quickly as it came, the snow was gone. Diana Hardbroom wore an odd expression, and Ada wondered if their game were up. But then the fire started. 


	29. Chapter 29

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 29: Absence

Hecate threw her arm out, throwing Ada to the snowy ground behind her. Blue-green flames burst forth all around her. Her mother wasn’t simply conjuring fire - the very earth seemed to be responding to her will. 

The trees were on fire, the shack was on fire. Even the snow covered ground burst into flames. Hecate looked away from her mother, checking that Ada hadn’t caught fire with everything else. But whatever protection Ada had cast around herself was holding tight, and Hecate breathed a sigh of relief. 

“Go, Hecate,” her mother shouted. She must have known her own spell had failed, but did she know about Hecate and Ada’s? How much time did they have? How much of her power could they drain?

“I know you put me under a spell, Mother,” Hecate said, raising her voice to be heard over the roar of the fire. 

“What kind of spell does  _ she  _ have you under?” Diana asked, inclining her head toward Ada. 

Hecate had heard, of course, of lovers referring to being ‘under a spell.’ Of having no control over their feelings, their desires, their love. But for her, at least, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Hecate was not bewitched, not changed, not controlled. She was her own self, free to do as she chose. And she chose Ada. 

She forced herself to cast a spell in her mother’s direction. It was only a ball of light, a simple display of power - harmless, really. But still, her heart sank.

It worked. The fire stopped, leaving an eerie silence in its wake. The very type of silence that predicted a storm. 

Hecate and Diana stared at each other. Then the thunder rolled, in the distance at first. Hecate looked up to the sky, and in the corner of her eye, she could see Ada pushing herself to her knees, then rising to stand. 

The first bolt of lightening still took Hecate by surprise, somehow. Even at midday, it violently lit up the sky. The following clap of thunder shook the very ground, causing Hecate to lose her footing, barely putting her hands out in time to catch herself as she fell. 

Behind her, Ada let out a yelp of surprise, and Hecate knew she would try to help. She waved her hand behind her again, trying to indicate that Ada should let it be. 

The rain began. Hecate felt soaked to the very bone, her vision clouded. She raised a hand, every instinct telling her to cast a shield - but she couldn’t. She had to let the spell play out. 

Then the rain started to lessen. Hecate looked up at her mother, who narrowed her eyes suspiciously. Diana looked at the sky as if it had somehow failed her. Perhaps this was working, perhaps her powers were starting to become those of a normal witch. 

The rain stopped, then the thunder and lightning. Hecate shook out her hair and wiped the water from her face. She paused to catch her breath and pull herself back to her feet, not even noticing at first that Ada had stepped forward to join her. 

But Hecate should have known this wasn’t it. If there was one trait the Hardbrooms all shared, it was the inability to quit before the fight was well and truly over. Hecate felt the spell before she saw it - a creeping feeling of being frozen from the inside out. 

The entire ground, their bodies, the house, the trees, everything in sight - it was all covered in a frost. In the absence of the snow, the flame, the storm, a dreadful silence fell all around them. It was worse, somehow, then all of the other spells combined. Hecate felt the cold seep into her, overwhelmed again by memory. 

“Hecate?” her mother said, looking around desperately. “Hecate what have you done?”

She knew. She had to have known. 

“Hecate?” Diana demanded. 

Hecate didn’t know what to say. How did you explain to your mother that you had drained her of centuries worth of power? “The glass,” she said, turning to Ada. 

Ada summoned it, handing it to Hecate, who held it up. “As I said, Mother,” Hecate said. “I know you cast that spell over me. That you tried to control my mind. We cast a containment spell.” 

“Hecate,” Diana said, her tone going from angry to pleading in an instant. “Hecate, please just give it back. Give it back, and we can discuss this. You must know I meant you no harm. I was thinking of your future, as I always am…” 

As much as she didn’t want to, as much as she revered the Witch’s Code and its admonishments against such magic, Hecate found herself almost believing it. It was misguided, to be sure, but it had always been there - a mother’s desire for the best, for her only child. 

In that moment, Hecate saw what her future could have been. Herself, beside her mother in the Eternal Cast, reunited with her family. Not in this shack, but in a true home. A fire in the hearth, a roast on the table. Hecate and the next generation of Hardbrooms guiding the family name to the glory her parents had always dreamed of. 

But then she looked at Ada, and she saw what her future was. In choosing one future, she was giving up another. And while she would always feel its absence, Hecate knew she needed to make a choice. She raised the hourglass above her head and smashed it to the ground.    
  



	30. Chapter 30

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 30: Carriage Ride

As soon as the hourglass shattered, Ada sprung into action. She whipped a protection spell around both Hecate and herself, encircling them in an invisible shield. 

The glass’ liquid spilled forth, Diana Hardbroom’s inflated powers returning to the ground. Ada raised both hands for a spell. “From the earth you came, to the earth you will go. To the storm and the frost, to the flame and the snow. Your magic shall live, but as it should be. In the tree and the flower, in the sky and the sea.” 

The sparkling water ran into the earth, melting the snow and ice and disappearing from view. 

Diana sank to the ground, scrambling forward on hands and knees, reaching for the power that disappeared before her very eyes. “Hecate,” she wailed. “After everything?”

“I know what you sacrificed,” Hecate said, standing over her mother. “What you gave up for me. I know that you gave me everything you could, that you felt shame you couldn’t do more. And I...and it was enough. I didn’t need infinite power or family name, I need…” 

“The coven,” Diana gasped. “The Eternal Cast. What will they…?”

Ada wondered that herself. What would the Eternal Cast do without their founder member - well, without a founder member with hundreds of years’ worth of power? Would they accept Diana back into the fold? Would they be furious? Would they continue their ignoble work, or would they disband? 

“It doesn’t matter,” Hecate said, sinking to the ground beside her mother, her voice taking on a note of what Ada recognized as desperation. “You don’t need them. Come with us. Come to the academy. We’ll look after you, we’ll put things right.” 

“Hecate,” Diana said, and Ada’s heart sank. She’d had enough conversations with Agatha over the years to know exactly where this was going. “You need to go.” 

“I can’t - “ Hecate started, but Diana whipped her arm in a circle, summoning a horse-drawn carriage, like something from a fairy tale. Did she still have more power than an ordinary witch somehow? Or was this within the scope she’d had all along? Ada didn’t know which was more tragic. 

Ada knew she couldn’t wait - no matter how much time they allowed, she knew Diana wouldn’t come around the way Hecate desired. If her own life had taught her one thing, it was that. She grabbed Hecate’s hand and ran toward the carriage, which took off at a speed much quicker than natural or expected. 

* * *

“I’m sorry, Hecate,” Ada said as they approached the academy, after a long, silent ride. The carriage had turned out to be beautiful, lined in a lavender velvet and pulled by a white horse. Ada knew it would disappear the second they disembarked, and in any other circumstance, this would be quite the romantic moment. 

Hecate stared out over the snow-covered landscape, obviously trying to hold herself together. She shrugged. “Will she ever…?” she finally asked. 

Ada thought of Agatha. Of Agatha’s expulsion from Cackle’s, of her decision not to attend university. Of Agatha’s inflated stories at every family meal. Of Agatha’s engagement that Ada knew was motivated in part by a desire to prove herself better than her twin. “I don’t know, Hecate,” she said. “We never know. But we can hope.” 

Hecate nodded and moved closer, resting her head on Ada’s shoulder. “Are you cold?” Ada asked. 

“No,” Hecate said, a little smile lighting her face. “No, I’m alright.” 


	31. Chapter 31

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 31: New Year's Eve

Hecate woke the morning of New Year’s Eve to sunlight streaming in through the window in Ada’s room. “What time is it?” she asked, reaching to the night table for her watch. Though she’d had it hardly a week, Hecate already found herself dependent on it. 

“It’s near eleven,” Ada answered from beside her, where she sat up in bed, a novel propped against her knee, her glasses slipping down her nose. 

“What?” Hecate asked, sitting up straight and double-checking her watch, as if Ada would have any reason to lie. 

“I wouldn’t worry about it, Hecate,” Ada said. “It is the holidays, after all. And we’ll be up late for the New Year’s Eve party tonight.” 

Any other day, Hecate would have been worried about the gathering of Cackle’s staff and Ada’s family. Would have dreaded it, even. But after everything they had survived recently, a party didn’t seem quite so bad. 

Hecate rose from the bed, padding over to the window to see if any more snow had fallen. But on the way, something caught her eye. Under their tree sat an unwrapped, solitary spellbook. Hecate smiled. 

* * *

The Great Hall was still covered in Miss Drill’s fairy lights when Hecate and Ada arrived to help Alma set up. 

“I’m thinking Dragon’s Breaths and Elixer of Lifes,” Alma said as she organized bottles along the drinks table. “Any opinions?”

“Those sound lovely, my dear.” Augustus Darkwood appeared from a back room, a few more bottles in hand. “Ada, Hecate, well met.” 

“Well met,” Hecate said. 

“No Agatha and Chadwick?” Ada asked, and Hecate was relieved that she sounded more amused than angry. 

Alma sighed deeply. “Don’t get me started about that,” was all she said.

“You were right,” Ada muttered to Hecate as Alma started mixing her drinks. “At least we won’t have to fight with them all night.” 

“We just fought a witch with centuries worth of power,” Hecate responded. “We could certainly fight  _ Agatha _ .” 

* * *

Alma and Miss Bat were a little tipsy by the time the party was truly in full swing, and Miss Drill was attempting to play a song that Hecate didn’t recognize on the organ. Hecate surveyed the room from her place sipping at wassail beside the fire. Though Ada had brought her around to everyone else, introducing her to one family friend and cousin after another, Hecate could not recall any of their names. 

Beside her, Ada smiled, the light from the fire reflecting off her brooch. Her expression told Hecate that Ada was up to something, but her eyes locked on Ada’s, and she found she couldn’t find the words to ask. 

“I’m sorry I’m late,” a voice called. “But I brought wine.” 

Alma and Miss Bat cheered, and all of Hecate’s breath went out of her at once. “Miss Amulet.” 

“Hecate.” Before Hecate could react, she was wrapped in a tight hug. “How many times do I have to tell you to call me Altheda?”

“Altheda,” Hecate said, looking from her former headmistress toward Ada. “You’re here.” 

“Of course I’m here,” Altheda said. “I can’t turn down a party, especially when I’m invited by someone so wonderful.” 

Hecate cut another glance at Ada, who was pointedly looking at the fire, tears in her eyes. She wanted to say something, but she was interrupted by Alma joining them, holding out a drink for Altheda. “So how did it go?” Altheda asked. “You’ve been on my mind.” 

“Uh.” Hecate cleared her throat, painfully aware of Alma’s presence, of her warning not to do the very thing she had just done. 

“It’s alright, Hecate.” Alma said. “We all figured it out.” 

What had she expected, really? “I’m sorry, Mrs. Cackle,” she said. 

“Please, Hecate, not to worry. We’re all family here.” 

* * *

Just before the stroke of midnight, Hecate and Ada slipped away from the party, settling themselves on a bench in the gardens. Hecate opened her watch. “Just a moment now,” she said. Ada smiled and took her hand, pulling her in to steal a kiss. “Aren’t you supposed to save that for midnight?” Hecate asked. 

“I couldn’t wait.” 

“There can always be more, I suppose.” 

“Many more.” 

A gentle snow started to fall. The grounds were silent, the stars brighter than Hecate had ever seen. She silently offered a New Year’s wish to everyone - to the family she had started off with, to the family she had now. 

Hecate turned toward Ada. “To the new year?” she asked. 

“To what’s next.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe this is the end! Thank you all for reading and commenting and sticking with this fic. I know I veered off the road a few times as far as fluff goes, but this challenge was so much fun and so inspiring! Thanks Cassiopeiasara for putting this challenge together and to everyone for their amazing fics and art!


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